Great Britain Cycling Team’s Tom Pidcock won the men’s E-MTB title at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships today, adding yet another world title to his ever-growing collection.
Just days after competing in the elite men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships, Pidcock switched his focus to mountain bike, taking back-to-back wins in the under-23 men’s races at the two world cup rounds in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, last week before taking to the start line today.
Pidcock took a solo victory of 35 seconds, with France’s Jérôme Gilloux coming in second and Denmark’s Simon Andreassen finishing in third. Tom’s attention will now turn to the under-23 cross-country race which takes place on Friday.
Earlier in the day, it was a fifth place finish for the Great Britain Cycling Team in the cross-country team relay event at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on the first day of competition.
Sean Flynn, Corran Carrick-Anderson, Isla Short, Elena McGorum, Hattie Harnden and Frazer Clacherty were the riders in action on the six-lap race, the youngest team Great Britain has ever entered into a world championship team relay event.
Sean took on the first lap, crossing the line in sixth place and handing over to junior rider Corran who put in a mature ride and delivered brilliantly on the descents, given the horrendous weather conditions.
Isla was next to take on the course, making her debut as an elite female rider at world championship level, and did a good job to hand over to Elena McGorum in eighth place.
Elena, a first year junior, slipped back slightly against some tough competition, handing over to Hattie who battled back to bring the gap to the front down.
Frazer took on the last lap to build on the progress Hattie had made, and further closed the gap to cross the line in fifth place with a time of 1:30.38 just 15 seconds off the fourth placed USA team.
It was a good battle for the podium places, with France emerging as the victorious team in a time of 1:27.34. Italy finished in second place, with Switzerland in third.
