OTLEY'S Tom Pidcock has won Yorkshire's most prestigious annual cycling award.

The Court of Trustees for the C A (Charles Arthur) Rhodes Award have made their decision in favour of the former Bradford-based Paul Milnes Cycles member in recognition of his rise to world-class status in both cyclo-cross and road racing.

The Leeds-born 21-year-old was an early starter in the sport, gaining many victories and accruing experience beyond his years.

He burst onto the world stage by winning the Junior World Championships in both cyclo-cross and time trialling in 2017, when he also won the Junior Paris-Roubaix road race and (aged only 17) the Elite British National Circuit Race Championship.

Pidcock continued to build on these successes, most notably in 2019 by winning the under-23s world cyclo-cross title, taking bronze in that age group's Road Race World Championship on home roads at Harrogate, and again winning Paris-Roubaix, now in the Espoir (under-23) category.

Last year, when he was still only 21, Tom was granted dispensation to ride the Senior World Cyclo-Cross Championship, where he gained an impressive second place against very experienced opposition.

Switching to the road, he swept the board in Italy's top amateur race - the Giro Ciclistico d'Italia (“Baby Giro”) - by winning three stages, the mountains classification and the overall crown.

With the promise of a professional contract with Ineos Grenadiers for 2021, Pidcock, who is not 22 until July, then returned to off-road racing in the Mountain Bike World Championships, where he picked up two more rainbow jerseys by winning the e-MTB Cross Country and the Under-23 Cross Country titles.  

As the year progressed, he continued to mix his racing at the highest level, finishing his first Elite World Road Race Championship and concluding the year by winning his first Superprestige cyclo-cross event in Belgium.

It is impossible to summarise Pidcock's many achievements in his still youthful cycling career but the emergence of this exciting talent has already brought great honour to Yorkshire cycling.

The Trustees are honoured to make this award and look forward to Tom's continuing development.

It is hoped that the C A Rhodes Award can be presented to him this summer.

Meanwhile, a posthumous award will be presented by the C A Rhodes trustees to Pete Read's family in acknowledgement of his outstanding contribution in revolutionising training methods for time triallists in cycling.

Goole-born Read, who died of cancer last February aged 75, was a pioneer in the use of structured indoor turbo training, assisted by heart-rate monitoring, benefitting time trialists both within Yorkshire and nationally.

He was one of the first to adopt out-of-season turbo training, resulting in a big improvement and the ability to win races.

His reputation grew as he worked with individual riders throughout the UK on personal training programmes, one of the first to do so.

Pete also held training sessions with clubs and wrote three books about training, setting out generic turbo programmes involving heart-rate zones.

Protégées of Pete began to make their mark, and this led to the formation of the Pete Read Racing Team in 1998.

In 2005, Pete Read Racing became Team Swift and they continued to win national awards, including seven BBAR team wins, plus national championships and competition records.

As the founder of Team Swift, Pete was passionate about time trialling, but ensured that they were not seen exclusively as a racing team.

Pete's friendly disposition and readily-given advice is sadly missed at time trials, but Yorkshire cycling is richer for his legacy.

Subject to any coronavirus pandemic restrictions, it is hoped to make the presentation to Pete’s family at a suitable cycling event this summer.