World cyclocross champion Tom Pidcock will make his return to racing on Saturday, November 19 at the Superprestige round in Mercsplus.

The 23-year-old has not raced since taking the points jersey in the shortened Tour of Britain in early September and has not competed in cyclocross since winning the world title in Fayetteville in January.

At last week's Tour de France route presentation, the Ineos Grenadier star said he has not yet set his calendar for the 2022-23 'cross season and is instead working on getting rid of knee pain that has persisted since last February.

However, Het Nieuwsblad reports that Pidcock will return to cyclocross racing in two weeks.

The Merckxplus race is the third round of the Superprestige Trophy. The following day, the sixth round of the UCI World Cup will be held in Overijse, and Pidcock will be competing in this race.

Pidcock's full schedule after that is not yet known, nor is it clear whether he will defend his world title in Vogelheide in February.

"I don't have a schedule yet," Pidcock told Cycling News last week. 'I think I'll start in three weeks, but we haven't actually talked about it yet. My coach has COVID, so we didn't talk about training camp last week."

As for the other two stars of the men's cyclocross scene, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, neither has yet confirmed a starting point for the season. However, both are expected to make their first appearances in races in late November or early December.