MTB Olympic champion Pidcock takes world cyclo-cross title in dominant style
The Briton adds the elite crown to his prior junior and U23 titles after a strong display of power and speed in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Cycling Mountain Bike
British cycling star Tom Pidcock has added a cyclo-cross rainbow jersey to his MTB Olympic gold from Tokyo 2020.
The 22-year-old multi-discipline rider triumphed at the men's elite World championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA) on Sunday (30 January), completing his personal collection on the grassland and sand, after previously winning the junior and U23 titles.
Pidcock managed to fend off the attacks from the strong Belgian contingent and powered to a solo victory, finishing 30 seconds ahead of Lars van der Haar from the Netherlands.
He even had time to celebrate by making a Superman-style pose when crossing the finish line.
Belgium's Eli Iserbyt finished with bronze, another two seconds off the pace.
Leeds-born rider Pidcock became the first Briton to win cyclo-cross gold at the elite Worlds, breaking the seven-year dominance of the duo Mathieu van der Poel-Wout van Aert, who were both absent from the 2022 race.
"That was always going to be a super-hard race," Pidcock said.
"Without Wout and Mathieu here, I think it became harder to win the race. But we came in with a plan and a process. We stuck to the process and it was good in the end."
Pidcock's win was the second for Great Britain over the weekend, following Zoe Backstedt's gold medal in the women's junior competition.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider won the men's cross-country Mountain bike (MTB) gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, and will now turn his attention to the road competitions, starting with the one-day spring classic races and the Giro d'Italia in May.
Road Olympic champion Marianne Vos took her eighth title in the women's elite cyclo-cross race on Saturday.