The British Thomas Pidcock was proclaimed this Saturday in Glasgow (United Kingdom) for the first time world champion in cross-country mountain bike in a race in which the Spanish David Valero ran out of options due to mechanical problems in the first loop.
Pidcock, current Olympic and European champion of the modality, won with a 19-second advantage over the New Zealander Samuel Gaze, who had won gold in the short test of the 'super world' in Glasgow; and 34 over the Swiss Nino Schurter, ten times world champion and defending champion and who this time had to settle for bronze.
The 24-year-old cyclist from Leeds and world cyclo-cross champion in 2022, won solo after dropping his main rivals at the end of the sixth lap.
Already alone in the lead, Pidcock resisted the comeback of Sam Gaze, second. The Swiss Nino Schurter, defending champion, completed the podium.
After a start marked by the retirement of Mathieu Van der Poel on the first lap, Pidcock was distancing his rivals one by one.
Forming part of a four-drive group with Jordan Sarrou, Alan Haterly and Nino Schurter, the Briton left the Frenchman, the South African and then the Swiss behind to find himself alone in the lead at the end of lap six.
Pidcock held on to the finish line and claimed the title, two years after becoming Olympic champion in Tokyo.
Behind him, New Zealander Sam Gaze rallied to take silver. Short track world champion on Tuesday, Gaze caught up with the leading group and crossed the line nineteen seconds after Pidcock.
Winner of the cross-country at the Les Gets World Championships in 2022, Schurter thought he could keep up with the pace set by the Briton from Ineos, but fell behind after meeting only the future champion.
Caught by Gaze on lap seven, he had to let him go and settled for third, just ahead of fourth-place Victor Koretzky.
The Swiss claimed his thirteenth World Cup medal in cross-country and his first bronze.
David Valero, world runner-up in 2022 and Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, lost all option on the first lap of the circuit due to a mechanical failure that took him off the hook without remission. He finished twenty-fourth at 3:14 minutes.
Jofre Cullell was twenty-sixth at 3:25, David Campos finished thirty-sixth at 4:31 and Pablo Rodríguez was 62nd at 7:09.
