Olympic champion Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) is set to make his 2025 mountain biking debut this weekend, as he lines up in the cross-country Olympic (XCO) race at the World Cup in Pal Arinsal, Andorra.
Pidcock hasn't ridden a cross-country race since the World Championships in 2024 – also at Pal Arinsal in Andorra – where he came third just a few weeks after taking Olympic gold. He also hasn't raced MTB since his off-season move to Q36.5 from Ineos Grenadiers.
Instead, the Yorkshire-born rider's 2025 so far has been largely focused on the road, racing a busy Spring Classics campaign before taking on the Giro d'Italia, where he finished 16th overall in Q36.5's maiden Grand Tour appearance.
However, with the ProTeam not invited to the Tour de France, Pidcock's July was relatively free, and he's taking the opportunity to return to mountain biking, confirmed by the Mountain Bike World Series organisers on Tuesday.
He will line up only in the XCO race on Sunday, as his current UCI mountain biking ranking is not high enough for him to earn a spot in Friday's short track (XCC) race.
The last time he rode in a World Cup event was Crans-Montana last June, where he won both the XCO and XCC races.
Despite some understanding that Pidcock's move from WorldTour to ProTeam level was to have more freedom to race different disciplines, this is the first time he's racing off-road in 2025. However, he's clear that that doesn't mean he's solely focused on the road going forward.
"[Mountain biking] hasn't been set aside, but I've joined this team, we're building it together, and that means I need to race on the road, we need to get into the biggest races," Pidcock recently explained on Red Bull's Just Ride podcast. "So that's where my mind is at. It's not that I'm sacrificing the others for it, it's just that that's what I'm trying to focus on."
In terms of equipment, Pidcock will continue to ride the Pinarello Dogma XC that he and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot helped to develop whilst at Ineos, rather than a Scott mountain bike, the brand Q36.5 uses on the road. This agreement was confirmed at the end of 2024.
"That was important to me, changing teams, that I could stay with Pinarello," Pidcock said on Just Ride. "The [cyclo-]cross bike and the mountain bike were both built for me, so I have massive respect for them that they could do that and did do that. And they're my bikes, you know?"
Pidcock has not laid out his plans for the rest of the season or his future in mountain biking, but his expected participation in the Vuelta a España makes it unlikely he'll be in action at the World Championships, as the cross-country events take place on the final weekend of the Vuelta.
He has, however, stated his hopes to race XCO at the LA Olympics in 2028 and target a third successive gold medal, so he is expected to continue to balance mountain biking with road racing.
