Leeds cyclist Tom Pidcock wins gold in dramatic Olympic mountain bike race
The 24-year-old came back from a puncture to overtake France's Victor Kortezky at the last minute
Last updated 29th Jul 2024
Cyclist Tom Pidcock - who is from Leeds - has won Team GB's second gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
In a dramatic mountain-bike race, the 24-year-old came back from a puncture to overtake France's Victor Koretzky at the last minute.
Pidcock - who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics four years ago - managed to close a 40 second gap before overcoming Koretzky.
Pidcock was booed by the home crowds at Elancourt Hill, who had been ecstatic when Koretzky had attacked on the final climb of the race - the sort of territory where Pidcock would be expected to make a move - to take the lead late on.
But their hearts would be broken after Pidcock got his nose in front of Koretzky as the path narrowed before a tree, the decisive moment in a tense race.
After a relatively poor start, Pidcock had moved to the front on the third lap and then took control, only for things to unravel with a front flat tyre.
Pidcock was lucky in that it happened close to the pits but his team were not ready for him and it was a slow change, leading Pidcock down in ninth place, the gap to the front suddenly ballooning.
He caught back up to catch Koretzky with two laps to go, but the effort told as he could not shake off the Frenchman until the very last.