Britain’s Tom Pidcock surged from the fifth row of the grid to win the elite men’s title at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at Vale di Sole in Italy on Sunday. It was the second rainbow jersey for the two-time Olympic champion after his 2023 world title in Scotland.
Pidcock powered away from compatriot Charlie Aldridge on the penultimate lap to take the victory, crossing the line 17 seconds ahead of second place. Canada’s Cole Punchard took third 31 seconds behind the winner.
Mathieu van der Poel, who also started on the fifth row, finished 4:40 back in 30th place, leaving the Dutch rider to continue chasing the one rainbow jersey missing from his palmares.
An emotional Pidcock dedicated his victory to 19-year-old Finlay Tarling, who died after an accident at the Volta a Portugal on August 14th.
“I don't have much words. It was a hard road here after the Tour [de France], to be honest. I want to dedicate this win to Finlay Tarling, to Josh. I mean, seeing [Josh] start of the Vuelta [a España] was pretty incredible. So I want to dedicate him and his family.”
“I knew there was a course that you really couldn't overpace yourself, and you had to ride within your limit. And I crashed pretty bad in practice on Friday, and my back was hurting from the first lap. I really couldn't go any harder, so I'm lucky that the pace I could hold was good enough to get to the front, and then last two laps I had to push whatever I could and see if I could try and stretch that gap before a final sprint. Yeah that was a pretty hard race.”
The French riders came out strong from the gun, pushing the pace and quickly creating a split at the front, wanting to distance Pidcock and Van der Poel. They had a reason to be worried as one of them, Pidcock, was chasing hard, finally connecting with the front halfway through the eight-lap race.
After some yoyoing, the Brit made his way to the front on the sixth lap and started to apply pressure on the group, which included Aldridge, Punchard, Adrien Boichis (France), and Martin Vidaurre (Chile). One by one, riders fell off the pace, with only Aldridge able to keep pace until he was finally also dropped.
Results
Pos |
Rider |
Time |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Tom Pidcock (GBr) Great Britain |
1:25:26 |
2 |
Charlie Aldridge (GBr) Great Britain |
0:0:17 |
3 |
Cole Punchard (Can) Canada |
0:0:31 |
4 |
Martin Vidaurre Kossmann (Chi) Chile |
0:0:59 |
5 |
Adrien Boichis (Fra) France |
0:1:06 |
6 |
Mathis Azzaro (Fra) France |
0:1:47 |
7 |
Dario Lillo (Swi) Switzerland |
0:1:54 |
8 |
Filippo Colombo (Swi) Switzerland |
0:2:02 |
9 |
Fabio Püntener (Swi) Switzerland |
0:2:04 |
10 |
David List (Ger) Germany |
0:2:08 |
11 |
Jordan Sarrou (Fra) France |
0:2:15 |
12 |
Luca Martin (Fra) France |
0:2:20 |
13 |
Simone Avondetto (Ita) Italy |
0:2:27 |
14 |
Mathis Guay (Fra) France |
0:2:30 |
15 |
Luca Schätti (Swi) Switzerland |
0:2:34 |
16 |
Jens Schuermans (Bel) Belgium |
0:2:50 |
17 |
Jofre Cullell Estape (Spa) Spain |
0:2:58 |
18 |
Vlad Dascalu (Rom) Romania |
0:3:06 |
19 |
Bjorn Riley (USA) United States |
0:3:20 |
20 |
Mathias Flückiger (Swi) Switzerland |
0:3:37 |
21 |
Juri Zanotti (Ita) Italy |
0:3:44 |
22 |
Maximilian Foidl (Aut) Austria |
0:3:47 |
23 |
Luca Schwarzbauer (Ger) Germany |
0:3:52 |
24 |
Luca Braidot (Ita) Italy |
0:3:53 |
25 |
Tobias Lillelund (Den) Denmark |
0:3:55 |
26 |
Maximilian Brandl (Ger) Germany |
0:4:09 |
27 |
Ondřej Cink (Cze) Czechia |
0:4:32 |
28 |
Simon Andreassen (Den) Denmark |
0:4:36 |
29 |
Samuel Gaze (NZl) New Zealand |
0:4:39 |
30 |
Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Netherlands |
0:4:40 |
31 |
Julian Schelb (Ger) Germany |
0:4:49 |
32 |
Leon Reinhard Kaiser (Ger) Germany |
0:4:54 |
33 |
Marcel Guerrini (Swi) Switzerland |
0:4:55 |
34 |
Riley Amos (USA) United States |
0:5:17 |
35 |
Ulan Bastos Galinski (Bra) Brazil |
0:5:25 |
36 |
Lennart-Jan Krayer (Ger) Germany |
0:5:29 |
37 |
Christopher Blevins (USA) United States |
0:5:50 |
38 |
Logan Sadesky (Can) Canada |
0:5:58 |
39 |
Joshua Dubau (Fra) France |
0:6:15 |
40 |
Mario Bair (Aut) Austria |
0:6:19 |
41 |
Vital Albin (Swi) Switzerland |
0:6:29 |
42 |
Alex Junior Malacarne (Bra) Brazil |
0:6:31 |
43 |
Alan Hatherly (RSA) South Africa |
0:6:37 |
44 |
Jan Zatloukal (Cze) Czechia |
0:6:44 |
45 |
Sondre Rokke (Nor) Norway |
0:6:48 |
46 |
Pierre de Froidmont (Bel) Belgium |
0:6:52 |
47 |
Luke Moir (RSA) South Africa |
0:7:06 |
48 |
Mats Tubaas Glende (Nor) Norway |
0:7:06 |
49 |
William Handley (Nor) Norway |
0:7:26 |
50 |
Tomer Zaltsman (Isr) Israel |
0:8:09 |
51 |
Krzysztof Łukasik (Pol) Poland |
0:8:45 |
52 |
Agustin Duran (Arg) Argentina |
|
53 |
Anton Cooper (NZl) New Zealand |
|
54 |
Tyler Orschel (Can) Canada |
|
55 |
Gustavo Xavier de Oliveira Pereira (Bra) Brazil |
|
56 |
Michael Foster (RSA) South Africa |
|
57 |
Carter Woods (Can) Canada |
|
58 |
Ivan Aguilar Villegas (Mex) Mexico |
|
59 |
Christopher Dawson (Irl) Ireland |
|
60 |
Jan Sáska (Cze) Czechia |
|
61 |
Nelson Peña Franco (Col) Colombia |
|
62 |
David Domingo Campos Motos (Spa) Spain |
|
63 |
Juan Ignacio Goudailliez (Arg) Argentina |
|
64 |
Luca Ruwiel (RSA) South Africa |
|
65 |
Johan van Zyl (RSA) South Africa |
|
66 |
Riki Kitabayashi (Jpn) Japan |
|
67 |
Ignacio Gallo Florido (Chi) Chile |
|
68 |
Patrick Pescaru (Rom) Romania |
|
69 |
Roberto Ferreira (Por) Portugal |
|
70 |
Evgenii Evgrafov (Rus) Russia |
|
71 |
Jhonnatan Botero Villegas (Col) Colombia |
|
72 |
Roberto-Dumitru Burta (Rom) Romania |
|
73 |
Oleksandr Koniaiev (Ukr) Ukraine |
|
74 |
Gonçalo Amado (Por) Portugal |
|
75 |
João Cruz (Por) Portugal |
|
76 |
Nicolas Martin Soto (Chi) Chile |
|
77 |
Farzad Khodayari Ref Refugee Cycling Team |
|
DNF |
Sebastian Fini Juul (Den) Denmark |
|
DNF |
Filippo Fontana (Ita) Italy |
|
DNF |
Adair Zabdiel Gutierrez Prieto (Mex) Mexico |
|
DNF |
Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo (Mex) Mexico |
|
DNF |
Tom Schellekens (Ned) Netherlands |
|
DNS |
Knut Røhme (Nor) Norway |
|
DNS |
Gunnar Holmgren (Can) Canada |
|
DNS |
Victor Koretzky (Fra) France |
