Tom Pidcock took cross-country short track bronze on his mountain bike at the UCI Cycling World Championships but then had to defend himself against accusations of bad sportsmanship from German rival Luca Schwarzbauer after a final corner collision.
The reigning Olympic mountain bike champion made a late lunge for the inside line on the sharp final bend of the Glentress Forest course and surprised Schwarzbauer as the pair touched, sending the German to the ground and putting him out of the medals as New Zealand’s Sam Gaze beat Victor Koretzky to gold.
Schwarzbauer then made his feelings clear, claiming the move was deliberate on Pidcock’s part.
“Tom crashed me out, he completely rode into me in that corner,” he said. “I’m super disappointed for sure because a bronze medal would have been pretty safe. He’s Tom Pidcock, but that doesn’t give him the right to do something like that.
“I said a few words to him and said it was a very bad move in my eyes. At first he said, ‘It’s part of the racing,’ but then he realised I had crashed.
“But I think he knew already. When he rides like this I’m going to crash because he was straight into me and he used me as a barrier. Already before the corner actually – he ran full gas into it and I think no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, the community of us.
“I know he’s Tom Pidcock and he’s a superstar, but this doesn’t give him the right to do that…He’s so aggressive, you can really see he’s the most aggressive rider, no one else rides like this. You can do this but in my eyes it’s not really sportsman (like).”
Pidcock played down the incident immediately after the race but, told of Schwarzbauer’s comments, he told the PA news agency: “What’s that famous saying? 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.”
That incident aside, Pidcock was happy with his performance in a race where he came from well down the pack to put himself in contention, at one point making up nine places in a single lap as he rose from 18th to third.
Although he could not respond when Gaze made a big move on the final lap, Pidcock will take confidence going into Saturday’s cross-country Olympic race, his big target at these worlds.
“I’m pretty happy,” he said. “I only did this to prepare for Saturday but this morning I was pretty up for it and it’s nice to have a medal.
“This is not really my sort of race so it’s good for Saturday I think. My legs were not super but come the weekend I think it will be OK.”
Evie Richards then delivered a second bronze for Great Britain in the women’s race as France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot – Pidcock’s Ineos Grenadiers team-mate – successfully defended her title ahead of Puck Pieterse.
Richards, the 2021 cross-country Olympic world champion, admitted the excitement of racing at home played a part as she put herself on the front in the early laps before dropping back, and she was then unable to respond to Ferrand-Prevot’s winning attack on the final lap.
“I think it’s always a bit stupid when you go off the front but I always do it, don’t I?” she said. “I tried to calm down, it’s very easy to get carried away when everyone is cheering your name…
“It’s been a real hard few years since winning the world championships so to be back here is really amazing, and to win a medal is even better.”
