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| Dates: 29-30 January Venue: Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA |
| Protection: Saturday 29 January 16:50-18:00 GMT – Junior ladies’s race, 2020-2140 GMT – Ladies’s elite race. Sunday 30 January 20:20-22:00 GMT – Males’s elite race. Watch through the Purple Button, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport web site |
Britain’s Tom Pidcock says cyclo-cross is the toughest self-discipline in biking, as he prepares for his world title bid.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider, who gained Olympic mountain bike gold in Tokyo final yr, is a favorite for Sunday’s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championship.
“Coming after Christmas, no doubt it is ‘cross – the winter climate, the bodily side, how intense it’s,” mentioned the 22-year-old.
The championships are stay on the BBC Purple Button, iPlayer and Sport web site.
Cyclo-cross entails races – often throughout winter in Belgium and Holland – throughout a mixture of grassland and sand, which incorporates steep gradients and infrequently sees riders compelled to leap off and run with their bikes throughout muddy sections of the course.
The 2022 championships are in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the place rivals will struggle for the honour of claiming governing physique the UCI’s coveted rainbow jersey.
Pidcock added: “It’s the focus… for an entire day, you go to the race, you journey there, you do a pre-ride, a great warm-up, you are absolutely centered.
“It is mentally the toughest, and bodily… at Christmas if you do 4 races in 5 days, that’s more durable than any five-day stage race for positive.”
Leeds-born Pidcock is among the most enjoyable British skills in biking, following his Olympic victory final yr and his presence on highway biking’s World Tour for Ineos.
In 2021 he gained Belgian basic race De Brabantse Pijl and got here second on the Amstel Gold race within the Netherlands.
Regardless of being a favorite due to the absence of fellow World Tour riders and former cyclo-cross world champions Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, Pidcock isn’t feeling the stress.
“The Olympics… I’ve by no means felt any stress like that – that was on one other stage. I believe now into these championships, it is simpler to manage.
“I do not assume something’s ever going to be like Tokyo was, and I confirmed to myself I can take care of no matter stress.”
Additionally in motion within the elite race are Pidcock’s Ineos team-mate Ben Turner and elite nationwide champion Thomas Mein.
Britain’s Anna Kay competes within the elite ladies’s race on Saturday. Within the junior class, Zoe Backstedt will attempt to add to her highway race championship victory from final yr as she races alongside nationwide champion Ella Maclean-Howell.
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