On the final lap of the men’s Olympic mountain bike cross-country race, it looked like Victor Koretzky was stronger than Tom Pidcock. Koretzky had not had to recover from a 35-second deficit as Pidcock did after suffering a front-wheel puncture on lap three. Pidcock continued to attack the French rider on the final lap, trying to open a gap, but Koretzky took him on move for move, before launching an attack of his own.
It seemed that Koretzky had everything under control and was gaining time on the reigning Olympic champion, but suddenly Pidcock was back in front of him. We didn’t see what happened on the live broadcast, which was this big mistake by Koretzky. On one of the last descents before the finish line, Koretzky got rid of his front wheel, leaving the door open for Pidcock to overtake him.
Koretzky was able to regain the gold medal shortly after, but he lost any advantage he had and that surely affected his composure. It also showed Pidcock that Koretzky was also on the edge and still had reasons to hope for the gold medal.
“I made a mistake on the last downhill,” said the Frenchman after the race. “The single track wasn’t as clean compared to the previous lap. I don’t know if it’s because of the first run or something else, but there was a lot of gravel on the line and I lost my front wheel. That mistake cost me the gold.”
Pidcock broke through on the inside in the final section of the forest and accelerated to the finish line to take his second consecutive Olympic gold medal. It was a bold move by Pidcock, the master of passing, but one that is permitted in the sport of mountain biking.
A Cycling GB coach said after the race: “I was right next to him if Tom wasn’t slightly ahead when they came together. So there was no infringement. And that, of course, is one of the challenges. When you’re racing, especially in a single-track sport, you know where there are opportunities, you have to take advantage of them to recover and sometimes there are some knocks and crashes on the handlebars and that sort of thing. But that’s the nature of the closed sport, rather than it being a contact sport.”
