In recent years, cyclists such as Van der Poel, Pidcock, Van Aert or Filippo Ganna have allowed us to enjoy their performances not only on the road bike but also as top-level competitors in cyclocross, mountain bike or track. However, appearances in these disciplines are increasingly measured to prioritize the road season.
We are in the month of December, with the cyclocross season well advanced and, however, the three tenors: Pidcock, Van der Poel and Van Aert have not yet been seen on the circuits when not so long ago, especially the duels between Van der Poel and Van Aert were the sauce of this competition. In fact, the three will barely compete in a handful of races and only Mathieu will compete in the World Championship, trying to achieve his sixth win.
The demand of his road squads to shine on the asphalt is causing their cyclocross seasons to become increasingly smaller, barely testimonial, even Van der Poel himself has come to consider a winter without races on the mud, seeking, in addition of optimal preparation, taking care of his battered back that from time to time causes problems.
Tom Pidcock last year also ended his cyclocross season before the World Cup after becoming World Champion in 2022 led him to arrive at the classics without adequate preparation, something that he carried throughout a season in the that barely shone at very specific moments.
For 2024 the priority will not be the road and he has been given ample opportunity to find a calendar that will allow him to arrive in perfect conditions to revalidate his Olympic XCO gold medal at the next Olympic Games in Paris.
For his part, Wout van Aert is the one who has been best at combining cyclocross and road, in the latter not only for its own brilliance but also being one of the strongholds of Jumbo-Visma in recent campaigns. However, this level of demand has meant that his results have suffered throughout this last campaign in which, despite always being in top positions, he has barely managed to finish, having collected an unusual number of second places.
Looking ahead to 2024, the only thing on his mind is getting rid of the long-standing thorn of not having one of the cobblestone monuments still under his belt. In fact, despite its great quality and extensive track record, only Milan-San Remo appears in this category of top-level races.
Objectives that do not involve dedicating training time to performing in cyclocross, which is why their season is also focused this year on December and January, just over a month, to make good money given the cachet of these cyclists in this discipline. , but without detriment to your sports planning.
On the other hand, we have track cyclists who have traditionally combined both disciplines without it being a detriment to them, although, it is also true, the demands on men like Filippo Ganna are much lower than those of the aforementioned and the similarities. In preparation to perform in road time trials and in the track pursuit discipline they are very similar.
We have been able to enjoy these great cyclists for many years beyond the road but everything indicates that we will see fewer and fewer performances from them outside the fine wheels. After all, those who pay them are their road teams and it is on the asphalt where they obtain their advertising revenue from their victories.
Source: www.brujulabike.com