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Three hundred and twenty-eight other gold medals will be handed out at these Paris Games, but surely none will be won as dramatically as this. Tom Pidcock lost the race to a puncture, won it back, then lost it again to the determined Frenchman Victor Koretzky before pulling off a do-or-die overtake around a tree to defend his Olympic title.
It was a superhuman display of racing. On the third of eight 4.4km laps, Pidcock was forced to stand still for half a minute while a frazzled mechanic changed his punctured front tyre and rivals whizzed by. He lost 36 seconds in all but soon began picking them off, one by one. Koretzky had watched Pidcock’s race dismantle firsthand as he took the lead, so what must he have thought when he turned a hairpin four laps and 40 minutes later to see Pidcock reincarnated?
In the final throes they went wheel to wheel, and in a wooded section of the course with trees peppering the middle of the track, Pidcock threw everything at gold, diving down the inside lane and emerging at the next bend half a wheel in front. They came together and made contact, Koretzky’s left foot was briefly dislodged from his pedal, and Pidcock sped away to emotional glory.
He fell into the arms of his family waiting at the finish, as some in the disappointed French crowd booed him. They were understandably frustrated but Pidcock had done nothing wrong.
“I knew Victor was going to be strong, and then the puncture happened,” Pidcock said afterwards, before revealing his inner monologue: a three-word pep-talk. “At that point I just imagined when I did a little ride this morning that, when I punctured, I was just going to say ‘f*** f*** f***’ three times, slowly, calmly, and then I’m just going to have to get on with it.
“Bruno [his mechanic] wasn’t ready in the pits but he did a fast change, and I knew at that point I had almost five laps, that’s almost 50 minutes, so I thought, anything’s possible.”
So Pidcock proved. He is a double Olympic champion aged 24 – he turns 25 on Tuesday – something only a handful of Britons have achieved. Adam Peaty was 25 when he defended his Olympic title; Andy Murray and Mo Farah were in their 30s. Pidcock’s name will now be held in similar esteem.
The Yorkshireman is an underappreciated jewel of British sport, perhaps because mountain biking does not carry a mainstream following. Yet his talents are multi-disciplined, as a cyclo-cross world champion and the winner of the queen stage of a Tour de France. Here he was up against mountain bike specialists, but that road race training with Ineos Grenadiers has developed his engine to go with the sublime, natural feel that makes him one of the best bike handlers in the world.
He needed that engine to haul himself back to Koretzky in 32C heat, but the winning moment, sending his bike up the inside of the split track, was pure racing instinct.
“In the end I just had to go for a gap. Rubbing is racing, that’s what I’ve always done and the Olympics are no different. I’m sorry for [Koretzky], the support for him was incredible, but it’s the Olympics. You have to go all in.”
Pidcock had begun the race ensconced safely in the middle of the 36 riders before working his way through the pack, and by the third lap he led. But suddenly he was losing speed and control as the puncture struck, forcing him to clamber down a sheer drop carrying his bike as Koretzky flew off the ledge and into the lead.
Pidcock never faced this adversity three years in Tokyo, where he built a gap which grew into a dominant victory. But after swearing at himself he stayed calm, not charging to close the gap but refinding his rhythm and gradually eroding Koretzky’s lead.
The French crowd had witnessed Pauline Ferrand-Prevot prevail on Sunday and were becoming frenzied at the thought of another mountain bike gold. Perhaps Koretzky felt the weight of their expectations when he lost control in the woods on lap seven, colliding with a tree and giving up his lead to the chasing Pidcock.
Koretzky recovered, fought back and surged clear into what seemed like an unassailable lead. He appeared to have the reserves of energy, fuelled by home support, as Pidcock began to tire from his almighty effort. But the Briton stayed close enough to give himself one more shot, and he took it.
