Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) won the men’s cross-country mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympic Games this week. Mathias Flueckiger (Switzerland) took silver with David Valero Serrano (Spain) claiming bronze. The gold medal was Great Britain’s first Olympic win in mountain biking.
Before the race Pidcock was asked who he considers to be the most complete cyclists. His answer, “I would say mountain biker, because they have the skills, and then they have physical ability, of course, which they could transfer to the other disciplines, whereas road riders maybe don’t have to be skillful. Track riders don’t have to be skillful. BMX are skillful but explosive, not with the endurance. So I’d say mountain bikers.”
Pidcock narrowly avoided a major crash by race favorite, sensation and complete cyclist Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) on the opening lap while hot on his wheel coming into a big rock jump. He then worked his way up to take uncontested Gold. So, who is this roadie/cyclo-cross racer now MTB legend who rides for the famous Ineos-Grenadiers road team? He says, “I was born to mountain bike.”
Apparently so. Check out the video below to see his journey! Although Pidcock is now returning to the road as he prepares for the Vuelta a Espana which begins August 14.
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