‘Superman’ Tom Pidcock claims maiden world title

Tom Pidcock wrote his name into the British Cycling history books on Sunday 30 January, becoming the first senior British rider to win the Cyclocross world championships with a dominant display in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Pidcock, 22, saw off the challenge of eight Belgian riders and a strong Dutch squad, including second-placed Lars van Der Haar, to win his first world championship in any discipline at senior level.

The win continues a supreme run of form for the multi-faceted Brit who, last year, took several prestigious victories on the road, and the gold medal in the Olympic Mountain Bike race.

Coming into the race, Pidcock was the favourite with the bookmakers. His closest rivals, the Dutchman Mathieu van Der Poel and Belgian Wout van Aert, were not present due to injury and fatigue respectively. The win was far from a guarantee though, with Pidcock still needing to overcome not only the large numerical advantage that the Belgian squad, which included the winner of the World Cup Eli Iserbyt, had over him, but also a power-intensive course that didn’t suit his diminutive figure.

After a poor start, Pidcock rapidly made-up places in the following technical sequence of corners, pulling a group of about 10 riders clear at the head of the race. The Belgian squad had managed to place six of their riders in this front group, and used their numerical superiority to put Pidcock under pressure, launching attack after attack to try and wear down the young Brit. None of these moves gained more than a couple of seconds on Pidcock who, as the favourite, and with little team support, had to chase down the leader alone.

For a time, the race entered holding pattern, with the Belgian squad unable to break away from Pidcock. But in Cyclocross – where a race is rarely more than an hour long – reprieves are short-lived.

It’s not gone down the drain so far, has it?

– Tom Pidcock

The decisive attack from Pidcock came halfway through the fourth lap of nine; cunningly forcing Michael Vanthourenhout the long way round an off-camber, sandy, hairpin bend. The sudden change of direction forced an over-correction from Pidcock’s main rival, Eli Iserbyt, who momentarily put a foot down to avoid a fall and created a gap between himself and Pidcock. From there, the Yorkshireman never looked back.

Pidcock drove into the remainder of the lap, taking 20 seconds off the previous fastest lap of the race.

With the Belgians in disarray, and other squads unwilling to help, Pidcock’s lead grew rapidly, hitting upwards of 30 seconds by the end of lap six. A chase did eventually emerge, formed by the eventual podium finishers, van Der Haar and Iserbyt, along with his fellow Belgian, Sweeck, and the Frenchman Clement Venturini, but by then only a mechanical problem or crash could stop Pidcock.

Into the final lap, and his lead was holding steady at 30 seconds, where he had just one more obstacle to overcome, the strength-sapping 39 steps he, with his bike draped over shoulder, had to run up – Cyclocross is an unusual discipline, to say the least. He overcame the staircase with consummate ease and was riding with the confidence of a man who knows exactly how good he is.

Into the home straight and he had time to celebrate early, first taking a jump where he tail-flicked his steed, before adopting the ‘Superman’ position as he crossed the finish line to seal his maiden senior world title. The podium was completed by van der Haar out-sprinting Iserbyt to the line for second and third respectively.

Speaking after the race, when asked about his win in the context of his overall ambition – to become the first male rider to win the world championships on the road, mountain bike, and cyclocross in the same year – Pidcock simply smirked: “It’s not gone down the drain so far, has it?”