Tom Pidcock needed time to gather his thoughts, his emotions and his energy after winning a second consecutive gold medal in the men’s mountain bike cross-country race at the Paris Olympic Games on Monday.
Cyclingnews saw how he bowed his head on a barrier as the seconds counted down to the medal ceremony, suffering with the fatigue of an intense race and the emotions of winning again, three years after Tokyo.
The French crowd’s boos at the finish turned to appreciative applause for the medal ceremony and Pidcock waved and smiled as he slowly realised what he had done in the final lap and what he had achieved.
The eight-lap race around Elancourt Hill had been packed with drama.
Pidock took the lead on lap 2 but then punctured. He managed to chase back to the front of the race and even got away with Victor Koretzky (France), the only rider able to stay with him earlier.
Their epic final lap showdown included attacks, mistakes and then Pidcock’s instinctive and decisive pass on a split singletrack section.
Koretzky opted to go right, taking the longer line and so Pidcock dived left with speed and determination. They came together but Pidcock was slightly ahead and so Koretzky lost speed.
Pidock knew it was the moment that decided the race and the gold medal.
“It's definitely my most emotionally draining victory, that's for sure,” Pidcock explained.
“The buildup went on for such a long time, especially in my head. There was all the waiting all this week, before that there was the training. It’s not until you hit the finish line that it falls away.
“It's completely different to come to defend a title, to have that pressure, to have that expectation. And yes, it’s much harder.”
Pidcock’s medal hopes seemed over when he punctured on lap 4. He was 40 seconds back at one point but never gave up.
“I was suffering, so it was definitely not the most enjoyable race,” he said. “I made two mistakes, the puncture and going off the track briefly, and so I was fighting to come back.
"But excellence is one of the values of the Olympics, isn’t it? I just didn't want to give up, I wasn't going to give up. I came here to win, that's all I wanted.”
Pidcock’s determination was evident when he swooped past Koretzky under the trees. It was the decisive moment.
“Normally I make the gap early on in mountain bike races but then I punctured, so I was kind of doing my effort to catch up. Victor is the fastest guy in mountain biking on the last lap, so I knew it was going to be super difficult. But I knew that if I could stay close to him, that I could make a move in the last part, where he wasn't expecting it.”
The largely-French crowd at the finish gasped when Pidcock and Koretzky clashed in what Pidcock described a moment of stock car auto racing, “rubbing is racing".
The crowd then booed Pidcock when he crossed the finish line but race officials soon confirmed it was a ‘race incident’ and Pidcock was confirmed as Olympic champion for a second time. He had never expected a different verdict.
“I didn't do anything wrong,” he made clear to the media, including Cyclingnews, in the finish area.
“I was in front and he left the door open. We were racing for a gold medal. I wanted to win just as much as he did.
“The booing was a shame because that's not really the spirit of the Olympics but I do understand the French, they're very passionate. They want Victor to win, which is understandable. But they didn't boo the rock that made me puncture, did they?”
Pidcock emotionally hugged his partner and family at the finish and was ready to celebrate, at least for a day, his 25th birthday on Tuesday. However, he will soon have to rest up and prepare for Saturday’s road race, a 273km loop around Paris with two 18km laps on the hilly streets around Montmartre.
Any thoughts about Pidcock’s long-term future goals are also for another day. He wants to target the Tour de France in the years to come but loves mountain biking and the Classics.
“I didn't want to speak about anything before the race, because the plans you make depend on how the race goes,” he explained. “Now things are too tight to think about my next big goals, it’s not the moment.
“I can't say if I’ll try to win a third mountain gold medal. It would be different, there would be less pressure, but that’s still four years away. First I want to celebrate and enjoy this second gold medal.”
Pidock also wants to inspire future cyclists and future Olympians.
“The Olympics is bigger than cycling and that’s what makes them so special,” he said.
“You know that people are back home and that they get into Olympic spirit and they celebrate every gold medal. That’s great. The biggest thing for me, what drives me on, is to inspire people. That's what I love to do and hopefully I did that today.”
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