Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) was dead last after the start of the Men’s Elite UCI Cross-country Short Track (XCC) World Cup race, but provided a champion’s response by storming through the field to take victory by two seconds in Crans Montana, Valais.
However, knee problems consigned world champion Sam Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to 36th out of 37 finishers and prevented him from closing in on overall leader Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing) who missed the round due to illness and injury.
In a pulsating Women’s Elite race, Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) enjoyed only a slightly more straightforward afternoon as she distanced the favourites with a ferocious attack on the final lap to win a second consecutive XCC round.
PIDCOCK OVERTURNS 23-SECOND MARGIN FOR STATEMENT WIN
On his final weekend of mountain biking before heading south to the Grand Depart of the Tour de France, then defending his Olympic title in Paris, Pidcock showed he’ll be a force to be reckoned with on all fronts with a scarcely believable comeback from worst to first.
The INEOS Grenadiers slipped a pedal after starting on the second row and sunk through the field like a stone, then collided with a rival as he attempted to recover on the descent.
Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) eventually led the field across the line to start the second of six laps after a merciless first circuit that saw a four-wide bunch sprint up the opening climb in the battle to lead into the technical descent.
Gaze was the holeshot but quickly lost touch with the leaders with eventual fourth-place finisher Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) later admitting they ‘shot themselves in the foot’ by going too quickly from the off.
A whopping 23 seconds ahead of Pidcock after the first lap, Schurter briefly broke away with Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) but the pair couldn’t make the move stick as a washing machine effect at the front also saw Blevins and Thomas Litscher (Lapierre Mavic Unity) kick on to no avail.
However, a lull on the third and fourth laps allowed the Olympic champion to fight his way back and he dragged a rested bunch with him when he finally made contact, quickly ascending to the podium positions alongside Schwarzbauer and Schurter.
Finally making his first attack from the front at the start of the penultimate lap, only the Scott-SRAM pair of Schurter and Filippo Colombo could live with Pidcock’s pace initially before Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) joined the party and made it a British one-two to start the final circuit.
The national champion was a spent force though and the most patient man on the course got his reward at last with Julian Schelb (Stop&Go Marderabwehr MTB Team) punching past Aldridge, Schwarzbauer and the tiring Swiss riders to slot into a second pace that he’d never relinquish.
The fastest finisher down the last descent, the German was even visibly closing on the win but left it too late to make the difference as Pidcock could post up before the line and celebrate what seemed like the unlikeliest of victories in the opening minute of racing - less than a week after he was sixth in the Tour de Suisse general classification.
“I didn’t make it easy that’s for sure,” Pidcock said afterwards. “At the start I unclipped then I was at the back, and I was actually getting dropped on that first climb, they were going so fast.
“Coming from a week-long stage race it’s something a little bit different but I was just riding it full, just to pick off riders every time on the climb and it was just my tactic, just ride full gas.
“Going into the descent if you’ve got riders in front, you can only lose time so I was trying to time it right so I could make up time on the descents.”
“I got there and I was suffering and I looked around and no one was pulling faces so I thought ‘Oh God, these guys have had it easy’ but I just carried on and obviously they were suffering.”
Gaze lined up at the start with heavy strapping on his knee and his paltry return means a three-figure deficit remains to Koretzky at the top of the UCI Cross-country Short Track World Cup tree. Schwarzbauer was one of the main protagonists in the early part of the race but faded at the death meaning Blevins jumps up to third in an exciting battle for the final place on the overall podium - just 142 points separate the American from ninth-placed Jordan Sarrou (Team BMC)
UNSTOPPABLE PIETERSE SURGES TO SECOND SUCCESSIVE WIN
Chiara Teocchi (Orbea Factory Team) hit the front early in the Women’s Elite XCC race with Pieterse distanced before recovering that ground in the first descent. The race-winning selection was made almost immediately with Loana Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV) and Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon) completing a lead quartet after Lotte Koopmans (KMC Ridley MTB Racing) lost control on the brutally steep Red Bull Roots and Rolls section and speared straight into the netting at the corner.
And there was barely a moment’s rest from there in a race full of haymakers in the lead group, Lecomte landing the first (albeit glancing) blow when she gapped the rest on the second lap but failed to make the move stick.
Teochchi was shaken loose but the Orbea Factory green continued to light up the front of the race as Anne Tauber bridged across followed shortly by Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing – Pirelli), in a hugely encouraging showing after the American broke her collarbone in Mairiporã (Brazil) at the start of the season and only returned to racing last time out in Val di Sole, Trentino (Italy).
Pieterse had been an ever-present at the front but wasn’t able to make it pay as five riders took the bell with Tauber the first to make her move entering the long drag at the start of the lap. It was a brave effort and one that distanced all but her compatriot, who immediately hit the front and crested the top of the climb with a three-second lead.
Pieterse’s descent wasn’t the smoothest as she dropped a couple of seconds losing the back end momentarily, but the lead she’d fought so hard to establish meant she had time to celebrate before crossing the line - though promptly collapsing into a fetal position on the Swiss tarmac.
But ironically for someone who gave a fisherwoman celebration at the finish, no one else had a chance at reeling Pieterse in, she spent her energy at the perfect moment to dance away from the field with a victory margin of four seconds.
“It was very tactical, every time especially on the last part of the climb we went all in then on the descents it stayed quite together and on the road it was just looking at each other,” Pieterse said.
“I knew they’d have to push really hard to come back every time and we saved the energy for the climb. Luckily, I could profit off Anna’s attack a bit, I had the feeling I maybe wasn’t the fastest in the descent, I didn’t want to take any big risks. Let’s hope for such good legs tomorrow.”
Keller won the sprint behind to strengthen her position in the overall standings while Tauber was overjoyed to secure a podium finish having put a few bike lengths into Lecomte on the run into the finish.
Teocchi paid for her early efforts, plummeting down the field in the final couple of laps to eventually finish 24th - three places ahead of Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) who entered the weekend sat second in the overall rankings.
Batten was predicted to flourish on the testing course but never featured in the fight at the front, instead dropping further and further back and ceding the runner-up position to Pieterse, who now enjoys a 260-point advantage at the top.
LATE MOVES MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN UCI U23 UCI XCC WORLD CUP
Women’s U23 UCI XCC World Cup leader Kira Böhm (Cube Factory Racing) crashed early in yesterday’s race allowing Emilly Johnston (Trek Future Racing) to close the overall gap to just 26 points with a solo victory.
Johnston broke away early with Carla Hahn (Lexware Mountainbike Team) and Madigan Munro (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) and though she shook the American early, Hahn matched every acceleration entering the penultimate lap.
“I knew that in the sprint she would get me nine times out of ten,” Johnston explained afterwards. “So I had to be away before then. I just gave it the beans up the climb.”
And that she did, eventually distancing her rival to win by five seconds with Böhm trailing home ninth, admitting her injuries sustained in the crash had handicapped her fightback.
Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) revealed his victory in the men’s U23 XCC race was his hardest of the season, as the runaway series leader made it eight wins from nine after breaking clear on the final lap.
Amos was made to work for it, with several attacks failing to dislodge his rivals before he threw everything at the long road climb on the final lap. He finally made it count though, crossing the line two seconds ahead of Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) with Luca Martin (Orbea Factory Team) in third.
Amos said: “It kept coming back together on the finish, but then with two laps to go I put in a hard dig, because I didn't like how many of us were together. That split us into three or four.”
“I just went for it completely. I told myself I couldn’t drop a gear and just held the gear to the top and it was enough.”
The UCI Cross-Country Olympic World Cup returns tomorrow to round out the Crans Montana weekend with the men’s and women’s elite races plus the women’s U23 field taking to the trails, in the penultimate round before competitors take on Les Gets (Haute-Savoie, France) and then catch the TGV to Paris and the Olympics.
