LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Tom Pidcock will lead a strong British contingent at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal later this month as he bids for an unprecedented double.
No male rider has ever won world titles in cross-country and road in the same year but, after Pidcock's triumph on his mountain bike in Val di Sole, Italy, last month and the absence of Tadej Pogacar, he will be one of the favourites.
The 27-year-old will not be short of top-quality British support in Montreal with Adam Yates, a key lieutenant of Pogacar in the UAE Team Emirates XRG outfit, Oscar Onley and Fred Wright also selected for the road race.
Pidcock, who finished ninth in this year's Tour de France, got his first look at the world championship course at last week's 214km GP de Montreal where he finished sixth in a high-class race won by Mexico's Isaac Del Toro.
The world title will be battled out over 273km including 12 punishing laps of the Mount Royal circuit and Pidcock expressed quiet confidence that the course could suit him.
"On this course, you really need to have the legs for the last two laps," Pidcock said. "It's a good course for me; I've done well here before. But I'm not the top favourite.
"As Great Britain, we're going to go for it, and the more riders we have in the final, the better our chances of becoming world champions."
The only rider to hold the cross-country and road world titles simultaneously was France's Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, who won the road title in 2014 and the cross-country in 2015.
Pidcock picks out Del Toro and Paul Seixas as the favourites for what he expects to be an 'atritional' race but says the absence of Pogacar after the Slovenian's crash at the Vuelta a Espana does increase his chances.
"Tadej is the hardest rider to beat, and he's not here. That means the second-best rider is easier to beat," Pidcock, who is trying to become the first Briton to win the men's world title since Mark Cavendish in 2011, said.
Zoe Backstedt and Cat Ferguson will lead Britain's women's road challenge while Ethan Hayter, who was pipped to victory by Pogacar in Vuelta opening day time trial, will race the TT.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
