On the 12th May, In Nové Město na Moravě, CZECH REPUBLIC, Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock produced an extraordinary performance to win the first Cross-country Short Track World Cup of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series season at Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic.
Late entrant Pidcock started 40th of the 41 competitors, but the 23-year-old showed the speed and skill that took him to gold in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, surging from 22nd place with two laps remaining to win in a time of 20 minutes, 17 seconds.
Last year the champion cyclist from Leeds was the youngest winner of the iconic Alpe d’Huez stage in the Tour de France, for the Ineos Grenadiers team.
After his stunning victory, Pidcock revealed he hadn’t been expecting to take part in the race, making his win even more remarkable, saying:
“I only found out I was racing at 3 o’clock and I’d already done a three-and-a-half-hour training run this morning. I’ve only ever been second here in short track before so it’s nice to win one.”
Meanwhile, Austria’s Laura Stigger claimed the first women’s UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country Short Track World Cup of the season ahead of Switzerland’s Alessandra Keller and Sina Frei.
It was the perfect start for Stigger and the Specialized Factory Racing team, who won in 19 minutes and two seconds after some intense racing on the picturesque course.
“At the beginning it was brutal and there was chaos. You needed to fight for your position all the time. I’m so happy now that it played itself out in this way. Now I have to concentrate on Sunday,” said the 22 year-old from Innsbruck.
The Women’s and Men’s UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country Olympic World Cup events take place in Nove Mesto on Sunday.
