Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) took a pitch-perfect victory at the UCI World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě, riding solo from an attack on the fourth lap ahead of Nino Schurter (Scott–Sram) in second and Marcel Guerrini (BIXS Performance Race Team) in third.
Pidcock, reigning World and Olympic champion, has now raced in Nove Mesto four years in a row and won on each occasion, giving him an unbeaten record.
The early parts of the race looked a little perilous for the Brit, though, as Schurter and Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing) – overall points leader in the World Cup series and winner of the short track race at Nove Mesto on Saturday – broke away on the second lap and established a palpable gap.
By the third lap the major contenders were back together and Pidcock wasted no time in making an explosive attack on the circuit’s main climb – affectionately named the Whoopenberg. However, the move was pulled back as Pidcock was unable to break the elastic.
The attack had positioned Pidcock at the front of the pack, though, and meant that on the fourth lap, he was able to launch a renewed attack against Schurter on the climb and ride clear of the Swiss rider.
By the end of the fourth lap, Pidcock had pulled out a 15-second lead, and over the next three laps Pidcock’s lead hovered around 25 seconds – keeping Schurter within contention, and Pidcock only one technical misstep away from losing his lead.
A tiny wobble on the final climb was the only mistake Pidcock ceded as he expanded his lead to over 30 seconds in a decisive final lap before he rode to clear victory.
“Next time I need to practice some starts before I start on the front row,” Pidcock joked after the finish.
“Once I got going I just could try to go to the front and find my own pace. You know that’s important on this track as there are so many lines and every lap I was just taking a different line to be honest,” he said.
“I think I can be quite pleased with that for my first race of the year. Obviously, when you’re putting big hours in on the road, it’s quite different to come in and smash it for an hour and a half, so I think I can be pretty pleased with that,” he added.
Pidcock has stated that he is targeting Olympic gold in cross-country mountain bike this summer, and today’s result firmly places him as a favourite.
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