Pidcock defies puncture to retain Olympic title

Britain’s Tom Pidcock defied a puncture to retain his Olympic mountain bike title in astonishing fashion in Paris.

The world champion, who turns 25 on Tuesday, edged out Victor Koretzky with remarkable skill, having once trailed the French rider by as much as 40 seconds.

His fourth-lap puncture, while leading the race, looked to have ended Pidcock’s chances, but he again demonstrated his generational talent on the mountain bike to move his way back up the standings.

Having caught Koretzky by the start of the final lap, he proved his mettle when the Frenchman sprung a surprise attack in the closing stages to take the lead again, only for Pidcock to ruthlessly find a different line through the trees with his superb bike-handling skills as he edged ahead and then came off best after brief contact between the pair.

“The Olympics is so special, you never give up, you give everything, and that is what I had to do,” Pidcock told BBC Sport.

“I knew that Victor was going to be fast in the last lap even if I couldn’t get rid of him.

“I knew it was going to be a big fight, and he left a gap and I had to take it. That’s racing. I know people might view it differently but sport is about not giving up.”

British team-mate Charlie Aldridge, the under-23 world champion, was eighth on his Olympic debut.

But Pidcock’s Games do not end there – the Ineos Grenadier is doubling up to contest the road race on Saturday.

Three years ago in Tokyo, Pidcock became the first Briton to win an Olympic medal in cross-country mountain bike and has since shown his incredible talent to win the world and European titles in the discipline, while on the road, he’s won a stage of the Tour de France as well as Strade Bianche and the Amstel Gold Race.

Also a former world cyclo-cross champion, he arrived at Elancourt Hill – the highest point in the Paris region at 231m – on Saturday as favourite for the gold, despite pulling out of the Tour de France with Covid only 16 days ago.

In previous days he had described the course as “a bit bland” – but that will not matter now.

After a slow start, Pidcock quickly pushed his way to the front of the field but the puncture on the fourth lap, and a slower than ideal wheel change after seemingly catching his team off-guard, saw him tumble down the standings to ninth.

“You are used to things going well so even my mechanic wasn’t ready for it,” said Pidcock. “He did a super-fast change in the end, my bike was perfect apart from my mistake of puncturing.”

He got under way again 36 seconds down on French leader Koretzky, who stayed out on his own at the front, much to the delight of the home fans cheering his every pedal push.

But remarkably, Pidcock started to close the gap, and by the fifth of the eight laps had reeled back in the group – also featuring Aldridge – battling for bronze, with South Africa’s Alan Hatherly ahead in silver medal position.

Pidcock was never going to settle for the bottom step of the podium, though.

On the seventh lap he trailed Koretzky by just five seconds, making the catch to go neck-and-neck into the final trip around the 4.4km circuit.

But then Koretzky took his moment, springing a surprise on the leading Briton to take over at the front going into the final descent.

Roared on, it looked as though the Frenchman would not relinquish his lead this time. But never rule out Pidcock.

Descending, he worked his way around the obstacles in his way, veering to take a different path to Koretzky and while they briefly came together, it was a decision that paid off to bring Pidcock a titanic victory, his arms outstretched as he crossed the finish line nine seconds clear of Koretzky.

Bronze went to Hatherly, a further two seconds behind.

“I can’t thank everyone enough,” Pidcock added. “From being on tour and then Covid too, everyone was around me and we trained perfectly for this.”