Soon to be 22 years old (July 30), his track record is already making you dizzy. Thomas Pidcock became Olympic mountain bike champion on Monday July 26 in Tokyo. In an undergrowth, in a forest, on tarmac (or even on cobblestones), the Briton knows how to do everything on a bicycle. At the end of January, he came fourth at the cyclo-cross world championships before making a sensational road debut for the Ineos-Grenadiers team with a victory over the Flèche brabançonne in mid-April and a 2e place on the Amstel Gold Race a few days later.
But his preparation for the Games was mostly like a time trial. At the end of May, the Leeds native traded his road bike for a mountain bike and broke his collarbone in training. Not even hurt ! “To be honest, I don’t really feel it anymore, except at the airport with the backpack, where it’s quite irritating”, he laughs when he arrives in Japan.
On the technical and nervous course of Izu, 140 km southwest of Tokyo, Pidcock had to show all his technical skill to avoid running on a Mathieu van der Poel that left in a bright sun on the first lap. Stunned, the Dutchman abandoned two laps from the finish. The other great versatile arrived in the skin of favorite after spending six days in yellow on the Tour de France.
?? Mathieu van der Poel crashed at the start of the race during the Cross-Country MTB event. Dutch is repa … https://t.co/fKC07g9Bra
But the detour via the Grande Boucle was perhaps not the best preparation. “It was an obligation of the sponsor, so he had no choice. THEhe retired after a week, this shows that he did not have an ideal preparation ”, Pidcock said, moreover. He still gives himself time to discover the routes of the Tour.
Koretzky not far from the podium, Sarrou disappoints
Between his three loves, the Briton admits a weakness for mountain biking, the discipline of his beginnings. “I think I was born to ride a mountain bike. It looks silly but that’s what I’ve been doing since I was little and that’s what I’ve always liked the most ”, he confided after his victory in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) at the World Cup in May.
But as he practices it little, his world ranking is not up to his talent. As a result, he set off on Monday in the very last positions with his bib 29. In his “remount”, Pidcock quickly picked up the mountain biking specialists one by one. Lucid, he then took the time to stay in the wheels of the Swiss Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückiger before placing his attack three laps from the finish. Flückiger was the last to resist but let the Briton fly away after having to dismount on a climb. The Helvetian must be satisfied with the money.
July 26 – Cycling #MountainBike – Men’s Cross Country ?Thomas Pidcock?? ?Mathias Flueckiger?? ?David Valero Serran… https://t.co/VP6Shel35L
Coming back from behind, the Spaniard David Valero completed the podium a few seconds before Victor Koretzky. Victim of a puncture in 2016, the Frenchman said he was satisfied with his 5e square : “I have no regrets, I’m not as frustrated as I had been in Rio, where I couldn’t express myself. ” The disappointment comes rather from the 9e place of the reigning world champion, Jordan Sarrou, never really in the rhythm.
At 28, the Stéphanois hopes to take his revenge in Paris for the 2024 Games. And Thomas Pidcock? In brilliant jack-of-all-trades, he saw himself varying the pleasures before his Olympic title. “I want to get into mountain biking and road racing in Paris, and time trial too, if they want me”, he warned.
With his light physique (1.70 m for 59 kg), he does not have the morphology of the typical roller, but you cannot swear anything with him. After all, this boy also won Paris-Roubaix among the hopefuls in 2019. Next deadline for him: his discovery of a Grand Tour with the Vuelta from August 14.