While Tom Pidcock was ruled out of the GP Québec and GP Montréal due to a concussion sustained at the Tour of Britain, his coach Kurt Bogaerts is in Canada and downplayed any idea that the Brit has major issues with the team after he publicly criticised performance aspects at his home race.
Piddock reportedly said that Ineos Grenadiers currently "don't help me to perform optimally" speaking to Belgian outlet Het Laatste Nieuws after a disappointing opening five stages in the UK left him well down on GC despite starting as a favourite.
Bogaerts was quick to downplay it as much more than just frustration spilling over from a lacklustre personal performance, with no suggestion that there are larger issues afoot for Pidcock.
"We really didn't go into it much. It was the Tour of Britain, with home crowds, you're Olympic Champion, you want to do really well, that day it didn't turn out how it was and the first instant, you're not happy with that," Bogaerts told Cyclingnews when asked how he felt about Pidcock's comments.
"I think if you see what we've put together the last couple of years, we can't complain. For me, I don't see any issue here."
Pidcock also spoke of being "mentally frazzled" at the Olympics due to the rumours and questions about his future at Ineos Grenadiers, despite being contracted until 2027, however, Bogaerts seemed confident that the Brit would remain an Ineos rider for 2025.
"He has a contract until 2027, there's some things like Tom has a helmet of some different brand and people are talking about that," said Pidcock's coach.
"For me, it's clear - you have a contract until 2027, that's what I see on ProCyclingStats so for me there's not much discussion." This echoed Pidcock's own words to HLN at the Tour of Britain: "I have a contract until the end of 2027. I can't say more."
2024 was another largely successful season for Pidcock, in that he achieved his big goal of retaining gold in the Olympic mountain bike race at Elancourt Hill and won the Amstel Gold Race.
However, he still didn't kick on to new heights with COVID-19 infection ruining his third Tour de France appearance and early season progress on the GC front not materialising at his key stage racing ambition.
This latest bout with concussion has further derailed progress, forcing him to miss the two one-day races in Canada which serve as the perfect warm-up for the World Championships, with the road race arriving two weeks after Sunday's GP Montréal on September 29. If fit, he is likely to lead the British charge alongside the likes of Stevie Williams.
"We are following the protocol of the UCI so I think he feels better every day so hopefully he can go back to normal training soon," said Bogaerts before shedding some light on the incident which wasn't caught on the TV broadcast.
"It was a crash in front of him from Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) and he and Ethan [Hayter] were just behind and crashed over this guy and the helmet was touched. He had some light symptoms and we didn't want to take any risks with that."
But Bogaerts is confident that the young Brit should be fit in time for the race in Zurich and a debut at Il Lombardia in October, also admitting that while the Tour of Britain was a failure for him, his shape is close to where it needs to be in order to compete for wins.
"The crash is not ideal but the bigger picture is from road Worlds to Lombaria to be really in the game, and I don't think he was far off - he was exposed [at the Tour of Britain] and I think it looked worse than it actually was," said the Belgian Ineos coach and DS.
"It's a lot of races that suit him but the crash is not an ideal scenario, he was really looking forward to these two races [in Canada]. It's key to keep calm in scenarios like that and see the facts so now with Tom, it's recovering from this injury, doing the right things and getting really in the routine of riding and resting."
