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
Llori Sharpe claims historic gold for Jamaica at the 2024 Elite Caribbean Cycling Championships
Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) donates JMD$1 million to Jamaica Cycling Federation for equipment upgrade
The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) has made a significant contribution to the development of cycling in Jamaica by donating JMD$1 million to the Jamaica Cycling Federation. The grant, aimed at boosting the sport’s progress, was used to purchase vital racing and training equipment, including state-of-the-art smart trainers.
The Jamaica Cycling Federation expressed its gratitude for the financial assistance, highlighting the importance of this investment in elevating the sport’s standards. Smart trainers have become increasingly popular in cycling programs worldwide due to their advanced capabilities, which are integral to modern training methods.
“These smart trainers are game changers,” said a spokesperson for the Federation. “They allow riders and coaches to approach training in a more scientific manner, offering features like measuring and tracking energy output, simulating race routes, and even enabling coaches to remotely access training data.”
This technological upgrade not only enhances training efficiency but also opens up new possibilities for coaches to closely monitor and optimize athletes' performance. The equipment's ability to simulate real-world racing conditions and provide accurate data on rider performance will help Jamaica’s cyclists prepare for international competition with cutting-edge tools.
The JOA's donation represents its ongoing commitment to supporting the development of underrepresented sports in Jamaica. “This contribution from the JOA is truly appreciated and confirms the continued support for the growth and development of sports like cycling,” the Federation said.
The equipment is expected to help Jamaica’s cyclists better prepare for regional and international competitions, as the nation continues to push for excellence across various sporting disciplines.
Dream on: Paul urges young T&T cyclists to keep pushing for Olympic feat as 2028 LA Games in sight
While looking ahead to possibly making another Olympic Games appearance in 2028 in Los Angeles, Trinidad and Tobago’s cycling stalwart, Nicholas Paul, is also hopeful that he will be able to share that occasion with a few more riders from the twin island republic.
Well aware of the depth of the talent that Trinidad and Tobago possesses, Paul, who relished a second-consecutive Olympic Games appearance at the just-concluded Paris showpiece, believes it is very much possible for those cyclists to also achieve their dreams of competing at the global multi-sport event.
The decorated Paul, who has numerous championship medals under his belt, and Kwesi Browne represented Trinidad and Tobago with much gusto and pride in Paris, as they gave their all on the track in both the sprint and keirin events, though both failed to make the finals.
“Team sprint, sprint, Keirin, team pursuit, I just want as many cyclists as possible to be able to make it on the Olympic stage,” Paul told the Express.
“It’s a big, big, big pool of talented young cyclists coming up. I have been trying to be a good role model for them, to let them know that they can come out here because the dream is possible. You just have to work hard. We can make a good driving force from juniors straight up to the elite,” he added.
Having contested both the Sprint and Keirin quarterfinals in Paris, Paul expressed an even deeper desire to improve his standards going forward, especially after watching Australian Matthew Richardson and Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen erase his previous world record of 9.100 in the flying 200 metres.
Lavreysen stopped the clock at 9.088 seconds, mere minutes after Richardson clocked 9.091 seconds.
“It (the quarterfinals) was not the outcome I wanted, but you live, you learn, and you come again. But I’m happy for Harrie. That was a great ride, and at the same time, it’s giving me more hunger to get back on that length to be able to break the world record and get that fast again,” Paul noted.
However, for now, the 25-year-old pointed out that the focus is on rest and recovery ahead of his next major assignment, the UCI Track World Championships scheduled for October 16-20 in Denmark.
“I think I’ll back off a bit, have a bit of a rest, and then go into Worlds. I’m really hungry, but at the same time, the build was until Paris. It was a bit stressful, so I have to ease off and then go into Worlds with as much form as possible,” Paul said.
On that note, Paul also expressed gratitude for the support from Trinidad and Tobago’s sporting enthusiasts, though some comments were not welcoming of the athletes’ overall efforts in Paris.
“I never think about the negatives because we could only work with the positives, and we have a lot of positives to work with. Moving forward, us athletes should come together and try to make Trinidad and Tobago better as a whole. Athletics, cycling, and every sport; to raise the level not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but in the Caribbean,” he ended.
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