Who is Tom Pidcock? Team GB cycling star wins mountain biking gold medal at Tokyo Olympics 2021

Tom Pidcock stormed to gold with a dominant ride in the men’s cross country Olympic mountain bike race in Izu on 26 July.

The 21-year-old Yorkshireman started on the fourth row of the race but quickly got himself into the leading group and powered his way past the Swiss pair of Mathias Flueckiger and Nino Schurter to take control on the fourth of seven laps.

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At a glance: 5 key points

– This is Britain’s first Olympic mountain biking medal of any colour

- Pidcock adds the Olympic mountain bike title to his already long and diverse list of accolades, having won world titles in cyclo-cross, road and mountain bike events at under-23 level

- Adam Peaty, 26, from Uttoxeter, stormed to Team GB’s first gold of Tokyo 2020 in the men’s 100 metres breaststroke, in a time of 57.37 seconds

- Great Britain’s Tom Daley and Matty Lee have also won the gold medal in the men’s synchronised 10 metres platform

- Monday (26 July) has been dubbed ‘magic Monday’ after three Team GB gold medal wins

What’s been said

When asked how it felt to win gold, Pidcock said: “Not real really.

"It’s pretty crazy that I became an Olympian and I was trying to tell myself at the start of the race it’s special just to be here.”

Pidcock has bounced back from injury.

He said: “I haven’t done a good race since. I’ve trained really hard, I knew I was in great shape but there’s always doubt when I haven’t performed in a race.

“But once the race started, I knew I was in a good place. The heat, I mean, obviously I didn’t feel good but everyone just told me no-one will feel good.”

Pidcock told Eurosport

Background

Flueckiger was the only man who could even remotely keep up as Pidcock kept the power down to win by 20 seconds, having time to snatch a Union Flag and hold it aloft as he crossed the line.

David Valero Serrano won the battle for bronze, 34 seconds down, the distance to the chasing pack underlining Pidcock’s dominance on the day.

Mathieu van der Poel, another of the pre-race favourites, pulled out after the fifth lap having crashed heavily early in the race.

Pidcock was racing in Japan less than two months after suffering a broken collarbone in a training crash on the road, but looked in supreme form as he bossed this race.

After Pidcock got himself in front his rivals gradually fell away, with Flueckiger the only one who could stay in touching distance.

But a slip for the 32-year-old on the fifth lap proved crucial as the man who tops the world rankings lost ground, then hope.