ELANCOURT, France (AP) — Tom Pidcock rallied from a punctured tire to win his second straight Olympic mountain bike gold medal on Monday, fighting off Viktor Koretzky on a dramatic final lap to deny a French sweep of the men’s and women’s races at Elancourt Hill.
Pidcock had taken the lead entering the last of eight laps, only to give it back as he traded blows with Koretzky over the final couple of miles. The winning move was made in a wooded section of the course, where the path diverged around a tree. Pidcock went to the left, Koretzky to the right, and the two bumped when they came back together.
Pidcock squeezed ahead, though, and he held on the rest of the way, letting out a roar as he crossed the finish line.
The British rider, who had to pull out of the Tour de France about two weeks ago when he contracted COVID-19, joined Paola Pezzo and Julien Absalon as the only riders with two mountain bike gold medals from the Summer Games.
Koretzky finished in second, one day after Pauline Ferrand-Prevot delivered a long-awaited gold for France in the women’s race. Alan Hatherly wound up with the bronze medal in the best finish ever for South Africa.
The weather made conditions tough at Elancourt Hill, the man-made course built at the site of an 1800s sandstone quarry-turned-regenerated park just outside of Paris. While a slight breeze at the highest point on the course kept flags waving, it was not felt anywhere else, and the cloudless sky left the sun to beat mercilessly on riders and spectators alike.
At least the riders had cooling vests, which they wore right until they coasted to the starting line.
Riley Amos, the 22-year-old American who has dominated the under-23 World Cup circuit, went right to the front on the first lap on the 4.4-kilometer (2.7-mile) course. But he soon began to fade.
By the second lap, a select group of 14 riders — among them Olympic silver medalist Mathias Flueckiger, three-time Olympic medal-winner Nino Schurter and World Cup standouts Koretzky and Hatherly — had distanced from the rest of the field.
By the third lap, it was down to Pidcock and Koretzky, who doggedly clung to the Briton’s rear wheel.
Then misfortune struck Pidcock on Lap 4, when he suddenly pulled into the pits. The front tire on his Pinarello was losing air. His team quickly replaced it while Pidcock calmly took on water, and he remained downright stoic when he went back to work.
Pidcock soon joined a group with British teammate Charlie Aldridge, shaving away at Koretzky’s advantage. And he soon surged ahead and to track down Hatherly, eventually working with the South African in an attempt to chase down the leader.
Once they reached Koretzky, the confident — brash, even — rider from Leeds immediately attacked for the lead.
He would have to do it again on the final lap for victory.
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