Tom Pidcock may be both the world and Olympic mountain bike cross-country champion after Saturday’s success in Glentress Forest but he knows he remains an “outsider” in the discipline’s tight community.
Pidcock underlined his supremacy in Saturday’s cross-country Olympic race at the UCI Cycling World Championships as he shrugged off mechanical problems to comfortably beat Sam Gaze, with 10-time world champion Nino Schurter taking bronze.
But after a weekend of recriminations over preferential grid placements given to a handful of star riders – something Pidcock condemned despite benefitting from – and complaints over his aggressive racing style, the 24-year-old admitted his titles do not give him full membership of the club.
Pidcock secured bronze with a late lunge into the final corner of Thursday’s race, sending Luca Schwarzbauer to the ground, and the German then complained that “no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, (of) the community”.
Pidcock had defended his riding style after the race by quoting Ayrton Senna, saying “if you no longer go for a gap, you’re no longer a (racer)”.
Asked about Schwarzbauer’s comments on Monday, Pidcock told PA Media: “For sure I am an outsider. I don’t know everyone super well. I know the people I see frequently and race against and the British guys, but I am an outsider.
“I don’t do all the races. I don’t know everybody. I only know a few teams that I’ve worked with in the past, but I am an outsider and when I’m at a race I feel that.”
Schwarzbauer called Pidcock “unsportsmanlike” after their coming together, but for Pidcock the incident was forgotten almost immediately as he turned his focus to his primary target – Saturday’s XCO race.
“I was more annoyed I had to wait an hour for the podium,” he said. “I forgot about it after five minutes.
“But I wanted to make sure I didn’t have any regrets from the short track going into the race because that would have annoyed me. I went in to try and get a medal in front of the home crowd so that’s what I did.”
Before the race Schwarzbauer had been one of 20 signatories to an open letter complaining about a UCI decision to adopt a World Cup rule and elevate road racing stars Mathieu van der Poel and Peter Sagan to the fourth row of the race, rather than the 13th row as their UCI ranking should have placed them.
Pidcock also benefited as he was moved up from the fifth row but, speaking at the race, called the move “bull****” given he had sacrificed three weeks of his preparations for the Tour de France to race in the Novo Mesto World Cup and secure enough UCI points to ensure a decent starting position.
Hunting points will be his mission again when he shows off the rainbow stripes at the World Cup in his adopted home of Andorra later this month and – after he races the Tour of Britain on the road – World Cups in north America in late September and early October.
Those World Cups mean Pidcock will skip the Il Lombardia road race, but his eyes are firmly on defending his Olympic mountain bike title in Paris next summer, after which the 24-year-old knows it might be time to put away both the mountain bike and cyclo-cross bike to focus purely on the road.
“I think the plan with the team is I commit to mountain bike until Paris and after that we have a talk,” he said.
“I sacrificed three weeks of prep for the Tour to do the mountain bike. If I want to ever try and really win the Tour I would have to focus on that, but at the moment it’s working quite well.”
:: Tom Pidcock is a Red Bull athlete. To find out more visit his athlete profile on RedBull.Com
On this day 2013: Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy announces retirement
Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy announced his retirement from competitive cycling 11 years ago, admitting: “I know it is the right decision.”
The 37-year-old Scot had been contemplating continuing until the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but revealed he was quitting the sport at a press conference in Edinburgh on April 18, 2013.
Hoy was Britain’s most decorated Olympian after his haul of two gold medals at London 2012 saw him surpass rower Sir Steve Redgrave’s record of five, although he was overtaken by former team-mate Sir Jason Kenny in 2021.
In explaining his decision, Hoy said: “I think in sport at the highest level you’re dealing in such small margins and you can tell when you’re good but not good enough.
“It was very emotional coming in there (to the press conference) and I was trying not to watch the video montage with the sad music.
“I don’t want it to be a sad moment.
“I want to celebrate it and be happy because I know it is the right decision.
“It’s a decision that I didn’t take lightly and I thought about it very hard.”
As well as six Olympic titles, Hoy’s 13-year career featured 11 world titles and two Commonwealth crowns.
Hoy’s final race was the Olympic Keirin final on August 7, 2012 – on the final day of the London 2012 track programme.
Following retirement, Hoy pursued his passion for motorsport, including competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours, while he has also written children’s books.
In February 2024, the 48-year-old announced he was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Paul extends rich form with double gold; Browne, Campbell also among T&T's medals at PanAm Track Cycling Champs
Trinidad and Tobago’s ace cyclist Nicholas Paul continued his rich early season form as he wrapped up another double gold medal-winning outing at the just-concluded Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Los Angeles, California.
Paul’s medals were won in his customary events, the men's Keirin and Sprint, and followed his fairly successful outing at the UCI Championships in Hong Kong where he recovered from a two-cycle collision in the Keirin to win the Sprint.
The 23-year-old again expressed gratitude for the continued support as he represents the twin island republic with much gusto.
“It is always an honour to represent my country and the Pan American region. Thank you to everyone for all the love and continued support. The Journey continues and the next stop will be the Nations Cup in Milton, Canada. So, I just want to continue putting in the hard work and let it show in my performances,” Paul said.
In the Keirin, Paul topped Colombia’s Kevin Quintero, while another Trinidad and Tobago cyclist Kwesi Browne copped bronze.
However, it took a photo-finish to separate Paul and another Colombian Cristian Ortega for the Sprint crown. Paul bettered his South American rival in the first ride before edging ahead in the second ride on the line by millimeters to retain his title.
Meanwhile, Akil Campbell was also among the medals, as he won a bronze medal in the men's scratch race.
In other results at the meet, Alexi Ramirez finished eighth in the women's elimination race and in the women's scratch race, while Makaira Wallace and Phoebe Sandy placed 13th and 17th in the women's sprint qualification, respectively.
On this day in 2018: Scotland’s Katie Archibald wins Commonwealth Games gold
Scotland’s Katie Archibald added Commonwealth champion to her long list of accolades on this day in 2018.
Archibald, an Olympic, world and European champion in various disciplines, took gold in the women’s individual pursuit in Brisbane, having broken the Games record in a blistering qualifying session.
Her only previous Commonwealth medal was the bronze she won on home soil in the points race in Glasgow four years earlier.
Archibald, then aged 24, said before racing began gold was the only colour she wanted and swiftly delivered, covering the 3,000m distance in three minutes 26.088 seconds to beat Australian Rebecca Wiasak.
She had set the record at 3:24.119 in a qualifying session which saw three riders go under the previous record set by England’s Joanna Rowsell Shand in Glasgow.
“It means a lot, especially in the individual pursuit because it’s not an Olympic event,” said Archibald. “2014 always stands out as a big year for Joanna Rowsell to kind of echo, because she had the title and the Games record.
“You look at the success she carried from that point in her career. I’d be very proud.”
Fired up by his sister’s performance, Archibald’s brother John then added another medal to Scotland’s tally with silver in the men’s 4,000m individual pursuit as England’s Charlie Tanfield clinched gold.
“I watched her heat run and the pressure was on her,” said John Archibald.
“The Commonwealth Games record went and they all went better than her personal best so she had her back against the wall but she pulled out and delivered on the day and that got me going.”
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