{"id":163235,"date":"2025-09-27T06:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/163235\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T06:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:49:16","slug":"tom-pidcock-and-oscar-onley-unfazed-by-brutal-world-championships-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/163235\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock and Oscar Onley unfazed by brutal World Championships course"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a year it has been for British cyclists. In May, Simon Yates won the Giro d\u2019Italia in the most sensational of ways. In July, the 22-year-old Scotsman Oscar Onley went wheel-to-wheel with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France. Then this month, Tom Pidcock achieved something many previously thought unlikely and finished on the podium at La Vuelta.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the 18-year-old Harry Hudson became the first British rider to win the men\u2019s junior road race at the Road World Championships, attacking solo with 36km to go. Earlier this week, Zoe Backstedt, 21, dominated the women\u2019s under-23 time-trial by 1min 51sec. Matthew Brennan, 20, has won 12 races in his first season as a professional for Visma-Lease a Bike. Paul Double won the Tour of Slovakia after turning pro at the \u201cgrand old age\u201d of 28, Ben Turner took a stage of La Vuelta and Josh Tarling vanquished the Giro d\u2019Italia\u2019s stage two time-trial.<\/p>\n

The days of British talent relying on one pathway through Team Sky\/Ineos Grenadiers are over, a fact that becomes apparent when one looks at the men\u2019s elite road race line-up for Team GB at this year\u2019s World Championships. Pidcock, of Q36.5, and Onley, of Picnic PostNL, lead the way, with Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious), Mark Donovan (Q36.5), James Knox (Soudal-Quick-Step), Joe Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech), Oliver Knight (Cofidis) and Bjoern Koerdt (Picnic). Not an Ineos rider in sight. <\/p>\n

That is in no big part due to the nature of this year\u2019s route; at 270km and 5,500m of elevation, it is arguably the hardest World Championship course ever. Over 15 laps around Kigali, Rwanda \u2014 all above about 1,500m in altitude \u2014 the riders will take on cobbles and 35 categorised climbs, including one \u201cextension\u201d lap taking in an ascent of Mount Kigali (6km at 7 per cent). It is one for the climbers, one for the riders who can take the hard and attritional days at altitude in the hills, and the team selection reflects that.<\/p>\n

When the road race takes place on Sunday, Pidcock will be only three weeks from the end of a tough Vuelta in which the 26-year-old from Leeds often looked the equal of Vingegaard and Jo\u00e3o Almeida. How he has recovered since then will play a big part in whether or not he can be competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve never finished a grand tour in such good condition, it\u2019s been a tricky balance to make sure I\u2019m recovered and also training,\u201d Pidcock said on Friday. \u201cThe cobbles are tougher than I thought they were going to be \u2014 15 times up them is gonna be pretty tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/p>\n

Pidcock climbs the cobbles on the Wall of Kigali<\/p>\n

DAVID RAMOS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Onley, meanwhile, was able to stick it out with Pogacar and Vingegaard on the Col de la Loze during stage 18 of the Tour. He finished fourth overall, announcing himself as one of Britain\u2019s great new Tour de France hopes. How he fares in one-day races is less well known.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go into every race wanting and believing I can win or do a really good result. Sunday is no different,\u201d Onley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really hard route. We rode it a few days ago. The climbs are really hard, but actually the rest of the circuit is quite wide roads, nothing too technical and you can really recover there. I think it\u2019s more the conditions that will affect the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

Onley has become one of Britain\u2019s next great Tour de France hopes<\/p>\n

SZYMON GRUCHALSKI\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Although there is only one big ascent up Mount Kigali, the repeated effects of 35 climbs and the cobbles of Cote de Kimihurura will whittle down the peloton to a small group. Of course, the defending champion, Pogacar, is the favourite. And though he showed some signs of weakness during the men\u2019s elite time-trial, being caught by Remco Evenepoel who started 2min 30sec after him, he expects to be at full strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect a lot from my legs, and we should aim for the best result,\u201d Pogacar said on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019ve got used to the environment, the altitude, the weather, just everything, so now the legs are turning pretty well every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock thinks the 27-year-old Slovenian will be a man on a mission this Sunday. \u201cWith what happened in the time-trial, [Pogacar] wants to prove something, doesn\u2019t he?\u201d Evenepoel is also a big threat after his dominant time-trial display to take his third rainbow-banded jersey in a row in that discipline. He has clearly adapted well to conditions in Rwanda and is in excellent form with a strong Belgian team around him.<\/p>\n

\"Belgian<\/p>\n

Evenepoel has looked in excellent form in Rwanda<\/p>\n

SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL<\/p>\n

Isaac del Toro, the 21-year-old from Mexico, is the third-favourite, despite being still eligible to race the under-23 category. He managed fifth in the elite men\u2019s time-trial and despite almost winning the Giro d\u2019Italia and taking 13 race victories this season, he said: \u201cI\u2019m starting with the idea that I\u2019m the worst rider in the peloton. I\u2019m probably not, but this way I find that I can focus better during my training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock is fourth-favourite and likes it tough. One of his favourite races is Amstel Gold, in the Ardennes, which he won in 2024 \u2014 a race of 254km with 33 categorised climbs and 3,300m of elevation. If he can stick with the lead group over the ascent of Mount Kigali, he may be in with a shot. \u201cWe\u2019re here to do well. I wouldn\u2019t travel all the way to Africa if I didn\u2019t think that I could perform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And if not Pidcock, why not Onley? He has shown he can take the punches and still keep going against the very best in the world in the hardest of conditions.<\/p>\n

Working in the Britons\u2019 favour is that national teams are often less coherent than World Tour squads. It will be harder for Pogacar, for example, to control the race from start to finish with his Slovenian team \u2014 and no race radios \u2014 like he might with UAE Team Emirates.<\/p>\n

Onley and Pidcock, from smaller teams, are masters of positioning and riding alone when they need to \u2014 they\u2019ll just need to hang on until the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a year it has been for British cyclists. In May, Simon Yates won the Giro d\u2019Italia in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-163235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}