A Weekend With The Pidcocks

Joey Pidcock travelled to Japan with Mark Donovan, David González, David de la Cruz, Jannik Steimle and Martijn Rasenberg to the Tour de Kyushu. On the opening day the 23-year-old sprinted to the win in a criterium.

He followed this win up with a fourth place on the opening day of the Tour de Kyushu after an audacious attack. Stages two and three ended in a bunch kick where the team set up Joey for a tenth and fourth place. It resulted in a fourth place overall.

These were the first top ten places for Joey Pidcock this year after a season marred by a concussion he sustained in the Trofeo Laigueglia early March.

Joey Pidcock said: “I had raced in Japan before but it was an amazing experience again. There were so many fans every day coming to cheer us on. To have the team put so much trust in me and work for me in the sprints this race was great. It has not been an easy year with the concussion. I only started to feel myself again in August so to finish it off with a criterium win and three top ten places here in Japan, feels good ahead of the off-season.”

Top ten places are not a novelty for big brother Tom. Of the 77 race days he did, he ended in the top ten on 41 occasions, including 16 podium finishes and five wins.

This weekend he added the last two in Bergamo with a sixth place in Il Lombardia and a sixth place at the UCI Gravel World Championships. There were less than 24 hours between these two results and about a 1,000 kilometers of travel.

Tom Pidcock said on his weekend, and the season as a whole:

“This weekend was ambitious. Our goal was Lombardia but the crash I had made it a bit harder than it needed to be but I am happy on how I ended the season. Two solid performances is nothing to be disappointed about. Of course we go for the results but we can be happy with the results we had.

We had no preparation for the Gravel World Championships, no course recon. It was against the odds and we didn’t do ourselves any favours with that but it was an adventure and we made a story with the race.

It was great fun and I really enjoyed it. In the future it would be nice to make a goal out of gravel worlds and do it properly. For a first attempt it was fun. Congrats to Florian for a super strong ride.

I am really happy with the entire season and what we achieved as a team. I think we can all be very happy with what we did.”