UCI MTB World Cup Crans Montana: Tom Pidcock doubles up in Switzerland with dominant XCO solo victory

Tom Pidcock doubled up with the cross-country victory Sunday at Crans-Montana in the WHOOP UCI MTB World Series. He finished a full minute ahead of runner-up Mathias Flückiger (Thömus Maxon).

Luca Braidot (Santa Cruz RockShox Pro Team) outsprinted XCO World Cup leader Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) for third place, the duo 2:05 behind the searing pace set by Pidcock.

While the reigning Olympic champion in the XCO stumbled through his XCC race on Saturday to take a narrow two-second victory, Sunday’s longer race was a steady demonstration of power and speed. It was his seventh MTB World Cup victory of his career, and a second win of the season, with the Olympic Games next on his mountain bike agenda following three weeks with Ineos at the Tour de France.

This new course in the heart of Switzerland’s Valais was new for the MTB circuit, but the Swiss riders had a distinct advantage having used the course last year for national championship races. The XCO course offered narrow singletrack on long climbs across each 3.5km main lap.

The opening five minutes were very tight, as riders jostled for positioning. For a second day in a row, Pidcock looked a bit unsteady but he slotted into sixth position for the first full lap in a line behind leader Julian Schelb (Stop&Go Marderabwehr MTB Team). On Pidcock’s wheel was Swiss standout Schurter.

Mid-way through that lap Pidcock passed Schelb on a technical line across the rock garden, and soon after crashed when he tried to grab a gel. Pidcock was able to jump back into the race down the line with Schurter, leaving Schelb alone at the front.

On the second lap Swiss rider Flückiger bridged up to the trio. By the third lap, Pidcock had made separation at the front with a six-second margin ahead of second-placed Flückiger. Schurter and Schelb were on their own in third and fourth, with Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) and Maximilian Brandl (Leware Mountainbike Team) battling for fifth.

Pidcock extended his lead to 34 seconds across lap four. Behind, Schurter made several uncharacteristic mistakes, one on a descent where he hit a muddy rut and went over the barriers, and another wobble in the rock garden, those dropping him out of third place.

But the Swiss rider wasn’t the only one with issues, as Pidcock later lost his front wheel on a root and went down again. Forster wiped out when his rear wheel spun out on a rooty descent, and he gave up fifth place to Schurter.

On the last lap, Pidcock nudged his own lead over the minute mark for the first time and he raised his arms in celebration, carrying the rainbow stripes as XCO World Champion across the line for the victory. 

“It was really tricky in the first few laps just to find my own rhythm. We were just getting in each other’s way,” he said at the finish.

“I made a couple of mistakes after getting my gap. I’ve got big things coming up and I don’t think my team-mates would be too happy if I’d binned myself today.”

In the men’s U23 competition the day before, USA’s Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) also scored his second win of the weekend, adding the XCO win to the short track victory.

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