January 30/22 16:16 pm - Pidcock Dominates to Win CX Elite Title UPDATED

Posted by Editoress on 01/30/22
 

In the absence of Wout van Aert (Bel) and Mathieu van der Poel (Ned), Tom Pidcock (GBr) became the overwhelming favourite for the Elite men's cyclo-cross world title on Sunday, and he did not disappoint, riding away from the rest of the field to become the first Brit to win the Elite men's title. He previously won the Junior title in 2017 and the Under-23 title in 2019. Lars van der Haar brought the Netherlands the silver, while Belgium was held to just Eli Iserbyt's bronze medal - the first time Belgium didn't finish in the top-2 since 2008.

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Michael van den Ham was Canada's top finisher in 25th place, riding a consistent mid-20s race. Tyler Orschel finished shortly behind him in 27th, followed by Malcolm Barton in 32nd and Brody Sanderson in 33rd (a lap down).

Michael van den Ham

"I didn't really have too much in the way of goals for this race," said van den Ham. "I think earlier in the season I was hoping for top-15, top-20, but it's pretty tough to put numbers on these things. The course is pretty different [from European ones], and the top half of the field is so, so tight. So, sometime in the last couple of days I decided my goal was to go for it, to put it all out there, take the risk of maybe blowing up and I did that today."

"I had a great start and was sitting maybe inside the top-20 for that first lap and really happy with that. I maybe paid the price for that effort a little bit later on and started to crack by Lap 3 or 4. Because of that I had a silly crash and lost a good group. On a course like this it is so, so fast - when you lose that group, even if it is only five seconds, it's really hard to get it back."

"I had a great battle with a Swiss guy [Gilles Mottiez], with Scott McGill [USA], for 23rd place. I tried to win that one on the hill and it didn't work. Overall, though, it was a really, really awesome atmosphere, really awesome event. I couldn't believe how loud it was up the climb, it was almost deafening. It reminded me so much of Louisville in 2013, and it was incredible to see the people turn out for an event like this, and the support there is for North American 'cross. It was really cool and I hope we can have one of these again."

Belgium certainly had the numbers, with eight riders on the start line, while the Netherlands had two. And it was clear that the initial Belgian plan was to force Pidcock to keep chasing, as they sent riders off the front, with Toon Aerts making the first attack. Pidcock easily responded, and the flaw in the Belgian plan became clear:  no one was strong enough to put Pidcock under pressure.

Michael Vanthourenhout went on Lap 4 for Belgium, but Pidcock went by him easily to take the lead before a little riser into a corner. The Belgians got stacked up behind him in the corner, Iserbyt went down, Pidcock got a gap, and that was it as the Olympic mountain bike champion accelerated and rode away.

You could see the Belgian panic behind as they tried to chase him, but they couldn't get organized, with every rider strung out in the chase. By the start of Lap 5 the gap was six seconds, after Pidcock set a new lap record of 6:32, and by the end of the lap it was 22 seconds.

First Belgium sent Laurent Sweeck to the front of the chase, but he burnt himself out, losing time in the process. By the start of the next lap the gap was 35 seconds, and you could see riders starting to look around as they began thinking about the race for silver and bronze.

Van der Haar attacked on Lap 7, with only Iserbyt able to respond. These two rode together for the remainder of the race, with the Dutch rider doing most of the leading. As Pidcock went into cruise control for the last lap and a half the gap came down slightly, but there was never any danger to his lead. Iserbyt jumped in front of van der Haar with about 500 metres to go, but it was a last ditch effort to control the pace, since when van der Haar attacked on the final straight, Iserbyt just sat up.

"I knew it was going to be a super hard race," explained Pidcock. "The drier it became, the more tactics play a part, and the Belgians were trying to ride a tactical race. So I just went out there as if I was in a war and had none of it. And when I had my opportunity I made it stick."

"With Wout [van Aert] and Mathieu [van der Poel] not being here, I think it made it harder to win the race. Everyone expects, 'Oh, the race is going to be easier now', but you can't go into the race with that mentality, because it's going to be a super hard race no matter who is in the race."

"We came here with a plan and a process, and we just stuck to the process, and it turned out good in the end. But you have to come here to America a week before and you sit in a hotel and the stress builds up ... it's a difficult one to manage, for sure."

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Results

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Belgium Sweeps Under-23 Men's CX Worlds

Canada Gets 2 in Top-10 Junior Women at CX Worlds

Italy Wins Inaugural CX Team Relay, Canada 4th & 7th