Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) successfully defended his cross-country mountain bike gold at the Paris Olympic Games, capping a comeback for the ages in the closing meters of the 86-minute race following a puncture earlier on.
The 24-year-old beat home favourite Victor Koretzky (France) to take the win with a canny move up the inside of a left-hand corner in the section of forest at the very end of the final lap.
The overtake, which almost led to a coming-together as Koretzky narrowly avoided a collision with his rival’s rear wheel, put the Frenchman firmly in the silver medal position.
He finished second at nine seconds down, two seconds up on Alan Hatherly (South Africa), who had earlier been part of the three-man lead group at the head of the race.
Pidcock’s hopes of emulating Julien Absalon (2004-08) in successfully defending the men’s Olympic gold medal looked to possibly be dead and buried on lap four as he punctured out of the leading position, rejoining 38 seconds down on Koretzky.
The Frenchman was set on a path towards making it two golds across the men’s and women’s races after Pauline Ferrand-Prévot triumphed in the women’s race on Sunday.
However, the chasers behind, in particular, Pidcock, would have their say.
Lap by lap, the Briton cut through the field, reducing his disadvantage until he and Hatherly – picked up along the way as he sped back to the front – caught Koretzky at the start of the final lap.
The trio were all set for a mammoth battle on the final run to the line, with Pidcock kicking off proceedings by attacking on the mid-lap climb. The trio stuck together, at least until Koretzky countered on the next hill.
That cutting acceleration dispensed with Hatherly, leaving it up to a two-man battle for gold. That battle was decided in the forest moments before the finish line as Pidcock chose the inside line, passing and blocking out Koretzky, who could offer little in the way of resistance as he saw his gold medal hopes vanish.
“I think this week, so many things go through your head. By the time you get on the start line, you’re pretty knackered as it is. It was all going pretty well and I knew Victor Koretzky would be strong here, I knew it would not be easy today," Pidcock said in a media mixed zone after the race.
“The puncture happened. Bruno wasn’t ready in the pits, but it was a fast change. I knew I had five laps, that’s almost fifty minutes. Anything is possible. I was coming fast back to Victor, but I couldn’t get rid of him.
“I knew how fast he was on the last lap. In the end, I just had to go for a gap. Rubbing’s racing, that’s what I’ve always done. The Olympics is no different. I’m sorry for him, the support for him is incredible, but it’s the Olympics, you’ve got to go all in.”
How it unfolded
The battle for men’s cross-country mountain bike Olympic gold would take place on the same course as the women’s race – a 4.4km circuit in Elancourt in the suburbs of Paris. It was a route derided by defending champion Pidcock as “bland” and not challenging enough for mountain bikes, but in the end, it would prove enough of a challenge for the top mountain bike racers in the world.
Riley Amos (USA) was the fastest man out of the traps at the start of the race, leading Hatherly around the opening lap as a cluster of French and Swiss jerseys trailed behind. Pidcock was caught a little further back on lap one, riding just outside the top 10 placings before making his way forward.
Hatherly soon took over the lead, with Swiss riders Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückinger next to head to the front on lap two. The duo had Pidcock for company at the front as the reigning champion claimed his spot in the midst of the contenders.
Soon enough, with just under 30 minutes of action gone, Pidcock made the first big move of the race. He pushed on in the lead on the main hill of the circuit, taking Flückinger and Koretzky with him as others struggled to hold the pace.
Pidcock kept his pace high at the front, seemingly in an effort designed to distance his two closest rivals. Flückinger couldn’t keep up where Koretzky could, with the Swiss rider dropping back to form a three-man chase group alongside Hatherly and Charlie Aldridge (Great Britain).
A two-man battle royale to the line, then? Not quite, with a major twist in the tale coming – Pidcock’s puncture. On lap four, he was forced to stop, dropping out of the lead before he got the required wheel change.
He’d rejoin at 38 seconds down in ninth place, with Koretzky left as the sole leader, 10 seconds on Hatherly as Flückinger and Aldridge lay a further 10 seconds back. Hatherly alone wouldn’t make any inroads into Koretzky’s lead, consistently lying between 10 and 15 seconds off top spot.
Further back, however, a comeback was brewing. Pidcock was on the charge, making his way past rider after rider to catch Flückinger on lap six. At that point, the pair lay at 27 seconds down on Koretzky and 12 off Hatherly.
Pidcock would go it alone in pursuit of the South African, speeding across the gap to make it two men behind Koretzky, albeit now 17 seconds back. He immediately hit the front of the new group, bringing his companion along for the ride as they sought the leading Frenchman.
It wasn’t long before he was in sight, and as the bell rang for the start of the final lap, the lone leader became a group of three, setting up a grand finale.
Once again, it was Pidcock who took to the front of the group, piling on the pressure with an attack on the way up the first hill of the circuit. The acceleration wasn’t the winning move, but showed Hatherly struggle to keep in touch.
Further back, Luca Braidot (Italy) was making headway in solo fourth place at 11 seconds down. But at the head of the race, Koretzky was readying his big move, attacking up the second climb. Pidcock, despite initially struggling, managed to get back on level terms while Hatherly didn’t, leaving a two-man fight for the win.
Between there and the line lay the forest and the decisive bend on the road to the gold medal. Heading downhill into a left-hand bend, Pidcock threw it up the inside line to squeeze out his rival.
Koretzky had nowhere to go, almost losing balance as he avoided a collision with Pidcock’s bike. That slowing of the pace, in addition to ceding prime position, proved a deadly combination for the Frenchman, who came home for silver as Pidcock rode on solo for the big win.
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