After finishing ninth overall at the Tour de France in July, Tom Pidcock returned to mountain biking at the World Championships in Val di Sole to win the men’s elite XCO title for the second time in his career.
Despite only having ridden one World Cup event so far this year, which he won at Nové Město in May, the British rider once again proved to be too strong for his competition, beating many of the world’s best riders to reclaim the rainbow jersey that he last won on home soil at Glentress Forest in 2023.
Starting from thirty-fifth on the grid, Pidcock navigated the traffic and scythed his way through the field on the opening laps to move himself up towards the front of the race. By the end of lap four of eight, the double Olympic champion had fought his way onto the back of the leading group of Martín Vidaurre, Adrien Boichis, Cole Punchard and his British teammate Charlie Aldridge.
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A mistake on an uphill section through the forest on the fifth lap saw Pidcock lose ground, as he was forced to put a foot down after getting his tyre caught on a root. However, he quickly composed himself and gradually worked his way back to the leaders, remaining at the back of the five-rider group for the rest of the lap as he took some time to recover.
After some brief respite, Pidcock came to the front at the start of the sixth lap, putting in a massive attack on an uphill section, which distanced Punchard off the back of the group. He then continued to push on through the remainder of the lap, with the other three riders battling to stay in his wheel.
Another dig through an uphill section then saw Boichis distanced, leaving three riders at the head of the race. With the Frenchman dropped, Aldridge and Pidcock began to work to drop Vidaurre, but the Chilean continued to hold on as they went onto the seventh lap.
However, the pace of the British duo ultimately proved too much for Vidaurre, as he began to lose ground and was ultimately dropped. It would now be a battle between Aldridge and Pidcock to decide the victory, with the recently-crowned European champion continuing to battle in the wheel of his more experienced compatriot.
A brilliant move from Aldridge then saw him go down the inside of Pidcock through a sweeping right-hand berm on a downhill section, pulling out a small advantage over his teammate. However, Pidcock quickly worked to get back into the wheel, before attacking on the next uphill section, just as Aldridge was pausing to take a drink from his bottle.
Centimetres then turned to metres for Aldridge as Pidcock began to open up a gap over the Scottish rider. The Yorkshireman then continued to power away, as Aldridge began to pay for his earlier efforts.
As they went onto the eighth and final lap of the race, Pidcock had a nine-second lead over his teammate and was continuing to press home his advantage in what was quickly becoming a complete show of domination.
Meanwhile, a rear-wheel puncture for Martín Vidaurre saw him fall to fourth place, whilst Cole Punchard produced an incredible comeback to move himself into a medal position in third place as they began the final lap.
A valiant effort from Charlie Aldridge saw him continue to fight on, but he was simply unable to match Tom Pidcock, who held his bike aloft as he crossed the line to become World Champion once again.
Aldridge then came home to complete a British one-two and claim his second silver medal of the week, after finishing runner-up in the short track event on Friday, whilst Punchard also held on to finish third ahead of a disappointed Vidaurre and Boichis in fourth and fifth respectively.
Elsewhere, it was not a good day for Mathieu van der Poel, who finished four minutes and forty seconds behind Pidcock in thirtieth place, whilst double World Champion Alan Hatherly suffered misfortune with an early puncture and finished in forty-third place.
In his post-race interview, an emotional Pidcock dedicated his victory to the late Finlay Tarling, who died aged 19 years old in a crash at the Volta a Portugal earlier this month.
“I don’t have many words to be honest,” said Pidcock. “It was a hard road here after the Tour. I just want to dedicate this win to Fin Tarling and to Josh, seeing him start the Vuelta was incredible, so I want to dedicate this to his family.”
Having only raced his mountain bike once so far this year, Pidcock’s form was unclear going into these championships, but he once again proved himself to be the best rider in the world at this discipline.
“I knew it was a course where you really couldn’t overpace yourself and you had to ride within your limit,” he said. “I crashed pretty badly in practice on Friday and my back was hurting from the first lap. I really couldn’t go any harder, so I’m lucky that the pace I could hold was good enough to get to the front. On the last two laps I just had to push whatever I could and see if I could try to stretch that gap before a final sprint, and yeah, that was a pretty hard race.”
Always a balancing act between his road racing commitments and his ambitions in other disciplines, Pidcock laid out his plans for the next two years ahead of the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, where he will be looking to win a third-consecutive gold medal in the cross-country event.
“Next year, I’m not going to do as much mountain biking,” Pidcock stated. “I’ll focus on the road and then return to mountain biking before LA the following year, but I’ll need to find the time to come and wear those bands.”
Pidcock is set to return to home roads at the Tour of Britain next week, with the race passing through his home county of Yorkshire on stages three and four.
Results
UCI Mountain Bike World Championships 2026, Men’s Elite Olympic Cross-Country
1. Tom Pidcock, Great Britain, in 1:25:26
2. Charlie Aldridge, Great Britain, +17s
3. Cole Punchard, Canada, +31s
4. Martín Vidaurre, Chile, +59s
5. Adrien Boichis, France, +1:06
6. Mathis Azzaro, France, +1:47
7. Dario Lillo, Switzerland, +1:54
8. Filippo Colombo, Switzerland, +2:02
9. Fabio Püntener, Switzerland, +2:04
10. David List, Germany, +2:08
