Like a boxing match, Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) overcame a near knock-down puncture and then recovered over the next four laps to land a winning knockout to Victor Koretzky (France) and retained his reign as cross-country mountain bike Olympic champion.
A chorus of applause mixed with loud boos at the finish line by the predominantly French crowd, who seemed shocked that their favourite finished nine seconds back of Pidcock for the silver medal.
Team Great Britain called the display ‘speechless’ on social media.
“I knew after the puncture that I had almost five laps, and that’s 50 minutes, so I thought, anything’s possible," Pidcock said at the finish.
“In the end it was really fast with Victor, I just couldn’t get rid of him! I just had to go for a gap. The Olympics is no different. I’m sorry for him, the support for him was incredible.”
It was a far cry from his 20-second advantage and dominance at the Tokyo Games three years ago, where Koretzky finished fifth. And it was a second comeback for Pidcock in a matter of weeks, having tested for COVID-19 and having to depart the Tour de France after stage 13.
He said leading up to his title defence three days ago, “I’ve recovered well”. He proved that on Monday.
"You are all used to things going well, so even my mechanic wasn't ready for it. He did a super fast change in the end, my bike was perfect apart from my mistake of puncturing,” Pidcock told BBC Sport after the finish about stopping in the pit with a flat front tyre.
“I can't thank everyone enough. From being on Tour and then COVID too, everyone was around me, and we trained perfectly for this."
Pidcock rode with Mathias Flückiger (Switzerland) and Victor Koretzky (France) in the lead group after the second lap of the cross-country contest. He then attacked on the third lap of the 4.4km course and opened a gap on the Élancourt Hill climb with Koretzky, the only contender who could stay with the Briton.
Disaster struck early in the fourth lap. Pidcock sensed his front tyre was softening and slowed before the drop-off. This allowed the Frenchman to accelerate away while Pidcock stopped at the pit area.
Once in the pit, Pidcock had already lost 10 seconds. He pointed to his front wheel, but when he stopped, the Great Britain mechanics needed a further 10 seconds to emerge, find a wheel and get to their rider.
Once the front wheel change was completed, the time gap had reached 30 seconds. Pidock accelerated away but had been passed by several riders. He was timed at 36 seconds down at the next official time check.
For a lap, the gap stayed the same. Then Pidcock began his charge with less than three laps to race, Koretzky now riding solo at the front and Alan Hatherly (South Africa) alone in second place.
Pidcock pulled back time at the close of lap 4 and was fast approaching Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and teammate Charlie Aldridge.
With two laps remaining, Pidcock made the catch of Hatherly, and their gap on Koretzky was just 17 seconds. On the next climb, Pidcock closed the gap to a handful of seconds, and the final lap showdown for gold went full force.
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