Tom Pidcock undergoes dental surgery after high-speed crash at Tour de l’Avenir

Tom Pidcock has undergone dental surgery after his high-speed crash at the Tour de l’Avenir earlier this year.

The British road and cyclocross star crashed out of the prestigious under-23 race in August, suffering injuries to his face and losing some teeth.

Pidcock has raced a full-on schedule since the summer and intended to have the teeth fixed after his CX season, but signs of inflammation meant the procedure had to be bought forward to Monday (November 25).

Manager of CX team Trinity Racing, Kurt Bogaerts, told Belgian cycling website Wielerflits: “Three teeth were badly damaged at the time.

“One has even been completely demolished. That has been fixed for the time being. It didn't bother him too much, Tom himself said. He would have that sorted out after the cyclocross season. But two weeks ago, after taking X-rays, there were signs of inflammation so we thought it was better for him to work quickly.”

While fighting for victory on stage six of the 'mini- Tour de France', Pidcock slid out on a descent at speed and was rushed to hospital.

Pidcock, 20, is focussing solely on elite CX racing this winter for the first time, having dominated the junior and under-23 ranks.

So far this season, he has claimed second in the famous Koppenbergcross and taken top 10 finishes in the European Championships and the Koksijde World Cup round.

On his performance against the elites, Bogaerts said: “Tom still has to learn to lose. That is his biggest challenge this season. Our big goal is to make him mentally stronger.

“Losing, he’s never known that in youth.”

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Pidcock is set to take a brief spell away from racing, having flown out to Barcelona shortly after his operation, while completing a five-day course of antibiotics.

From Barcelona he heads to Girona for an eight-day training camp, before he returns to Belgium next Friday for more CX racing.

Pidcock has yet to announce his road team for 2020, after Wiggins-Le Col shut up shop after the Tour of Britain, but has confirmed he will not be joining the WorldTour. 

Next year he intends to race the Cape Epic mountain bike event, some spring road races, and mountain bike World Cups, as well as the Tour of Yorkshire and the Baby Giro.