Packed with incident right from the start, Great Britain's Tom Pidcock has retained his Olympic Mountain Bike title in style after one of the most thrilling and dramatic XCO races in the event's history. The UCI MTB World Champion would be booed across the line, ignoring the crowd's reaction to a controversial clash between him and the second-placed French rider Victor Koretzky. Pidcock put his pre-race criticism of Elancourt Hill XCO track behind him as he secured the win on a course he had called “Just gravel and not really mountain biking”.
Pidcock said that the build-up to the race had "messed with his head", and that having withdrawn from the Tour de France early with Covid-19, he had "felt knackered on the start line." However, Pidcock would look anything but tired as he set light to the afterburners on his Pinarello Dogma XC bike early on. The field would be splintered as leading contenders found the heat and pace at the front too hot to handle, with only Victor Koretzky able to hold the defending champion's wheel. Koretzky, the current number one ranked rider and winner of the Elancourt Hill test was also looking comfortable in the blazing heat as he aimed to emulate his compatriot Pauline Ferrand-Prévot who won the Women's XCO race yesterday.
