Tom Pidcock was criticised for sparking a late crash that cost Luca Schwarzbauer of Germany a bronze medal in the Mountain Bike World Championships cross-country short track race on Thursday.
Eventual winner Sam Gaze (New Zealand) led into the sharp bend leading riders into the short finishing straight with Victor Koretzky (France) behind, then Schwarzbauer and Pidcock. The first three all scrubbed off a considerable amount of speed coming into the last bend, while Pidcock kept his pace up on the approach and made contact with Schwarzbauer.
That angered the German.
“He completely ran full gas into it,” Schwarzbauer told Cycling Weekly and other British media said after the race.
“I think no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, the community of us. I know he is Tom Pidcock and he is a superstar but this still doesn’t give him the right to do that.”
Pidcock ducked in on the inside, running wide on the exit of the corner and appearing to make contact with Schwarzbauer in the process. The German came down and by the time he had remounted, he finished ninth, in an event where he has finished in the top 3 of every World Cup round so far this year.
“Tom crashed me out, he completely rode into me in that corner … I’m super disappointed for sure because a bronze medal would have been pretty safe,” said Schwarzbauer, before going on to explain that it was difficult to make a difference after that last corner given it was just a few pedal strokes away from the line.
Pidcock was also asked about the incident following the race.
“I went for the inside and pushed him out onto the gravel and then Luca crashed unfortunately,” said Pidcock.
When in a follow up question he was asked if there was contact he said "probably".
When asked for a response to Schwarzbauer's comments, Pidcock said: "If you no longer go for a gap then you’re no longer a racing driver. Of course I did not mean to cause him to crash and I’m sorry for that.”
The riders also had a brief discussion following the race in the Glentress Forest, covering 11 laps of the 0.9km short track circuit.
“I spoke a few words to him and I said it was a very bad move in my eyes,” said Schwarzbauer.
“First he said that is part of the racing then he realised that I crashed but I think he knew already when he rides like this I am going to crash because it was straight into me and he used me as kind of a barrier.”
While the 26-year-old German rider was clear about his disappointment over Pidcock's move and it's consequences, he said his national federation had so far not lodged a complaint as even if a time penalty were applied a move him from ninth to eighth “doesn’t help me”.
”For me it's more important that it is visible,” added Schwarzbauer.
“You can easily see he is the most aggressive rider. No one else rides like this and for sure you can do this but in my eyes it's not really sportsman [like].”
When asked if he was hoping for an apology from Pidcock, Schwarzbauer said: “Yes for sure, but in the end I would rather hope that he doesn’t do it again. That would be more important for me than an apology.”
