Tom Pidcock put his stamp on the elite men’s cross-country race at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Glentress Forest, taking gold ahead of Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and 10-time World Champion Nino Schurter (Switzerland).
Starting on the fifth row, the Briton connected with the front group after 31 minutes of racing, and then, two laps later, dropped Schurter to solo to victory.
With one lap to go, Pidcock had a lead of 23 seconds on his closest competitors, but Gaze was not giving up. By the time he crossed the finish line for second place, Gaze, gold at the XCC earlier this week, was only 19 seconds adrift.
The legend Schurter bowed to the crowd as he crossed the line a further 15 seconds later for the bronze medal.
"It’s a massive relief. As soon as I attacked, my gears were jumping all over the place. I didn’t know whether to stop and tidy it up, or I just thought my race could be over at any point, and I couldn’t go properly because I didn't want to put them under too much stress. That was a stressful last few laps," Pidcock said.
The pace was high from the start of the eight laps of racing and never let up.
"I was not making it high, it was not me," Pidcock said of the fast start. "The first five laps were super fast, it was tough to come back from where I was."
In 2021, Pidcock won his first career MTB World Cup in the elite category, just two months before he won the Olympic Gold medal at the Tokyo Games to become the youngest Olympic champion in MTB. This season, he claimed the XCO World Cup win at Nové Mesto in May.
"After last year, I knew, the world champs are another level to the world cups."
Gaze, who started in 38th spot, had to mount a big chase to catch up to the leaders.
"I had to stay consistent and ride my bike as best I can. I was quite unlucky in the start loop and had to pay a little bit for that. But I kept believing in my mind and body and kept pushing all the way to the end. I got hung up behind some things, that's part of mountain biking. My coach said I came through in 45th or so after the start loop so I had my work cut out for me. Full credit to Tom, he's a worthy world champion and there's nothing to be ashamed about being second in the world," Gaze said.
"It was a very hard race, at the end it was full gas. I just focussed on my own race and looked up when I got to the finish. But, you know, it's a bit of imposter syndrome to be between the two greats of cycling. To be a part of this bike race is very humbling."
Alan Hatherly (South Africa) took the lead from the gun and continued to stay in the top three positions as the fight to move up behind resulted in Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) crashing out in the start lap.
Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) hastily made his way through the 33 riders in front, making his way to the leaders by the end of the second lap, after 31 minutes of racing and soon an elite trio formed around Hatherly with 10-time World Champion Nino Schurter (Switzerland) locked on the Briton.
As Jordan Sarrou (France) faded and Schurter made his way around him, Pidcock connected with the Swiss rider.
"I was going to ride at the front and try my best to take the rainbows and I stayed there until I couldn’t take it anymore and then just had to bring it home with what I had left. It was an extremely fast race from the beginning, I think we just tried to break away and ride our own race. I think Tom put us under pressure, and that was kind of the end of me," Hatherly said.
"It’s the world champs, there’s nothing to lose. Everyone wants the rainbows, and that’s it. I really went out there and I was hungry for it today and I think I showed that form for the majority of the race."
Hatherly struggled with the pace Pidcock set on the climb on lap six, but Schurter was able to hold the wheel and used the technical descent to come back to the Briton. And then there were two.
Then, Pidcock simply powered away from the experienced Swiss rider, while Hatherly fought to fend off a charge from Kiwi Sam Gaze, who had Victor Koretzky (France) for company.
Gaze continued his charge to catch and pass Hatherly and then Schurter on the final lap.
Results
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