Team GB gold medal star Tom Pidcock swears twice after ‘f***ing stressful’ Tokyo 2020 triumph

CYCLING sensation Tom Pidcock admits winning Olympic gold was “f***ing stressful” – eight weeks after being hit by a CAR! British Cycling’s Mr Versatile twisted and turned through tress and trails and jumped over massive boulders to win Team GB’s third gold on Magic Monday in Japan. The 21-year-old from Leeds blew away the cross-country […]

CYCLING sensation Tom Pidcock admits winning Olympic gold was “f***ing stressful” – eight weeks after being hit by a CAR!

British Cycling’s Mr Versatile twisted and turned through tress and trails and jumped over massive boulders to win Team GB’s third gold on Magic Monday in Japan.

PA

Pidcock produced the perfect ride to secure gold in the mountain biking for Team GB[/caption]

Reuters

He did not pull any punches when describing how tough the road to gold has been[/caption]

The 21-year-old from Leeds blew away the cross-country mountain biking field to win in a time of 1:25.14.

Switzerland’s Mathias Flueckiger finished 20 seconds behind in silver medal position and David Valero Serrano of Spain took bronze.

But one of the race favourites Mathieu van der Poel ended up on the floor on the first lap following a crash after a training boardwalk had been removed.

Pidcock crossed the line with the Union flag drapped over his shoulders which had been thrown to him by a fan at the Izu MTB Course.

He said: “I’m always better when I take control myself. I take my own lines, my own speed.

“Once we started I was fine, all the nerves kind of went and I concentrated on the race.

“I’m happy this s**t is only every four years because it’s f***ing stressful.

“This is nothing like any other race. The Olympics just transcends any sport.

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“You compete and represent your country and everyone in your country is behind you. No matter in what sports they like.

“It’s just national pride, it’s unbelievable. It’s super-nice to be part of that.

“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 almost never made the start line given that on May 31 he was hit by a vehicle and broke his collarbone while training in Andorra.

The Yorkshireman, who started 29th on the grid, said: “It has been such a hard time coming here from crashing and breaking my collarbone and that’s just unbelievable.

“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.

“Once the race started, I knew I was in a good place.

“I know that my mum and girlfriend are crying at home. It’s sad that they can’t be here but I see them when I get home.”

Emotional Pidcock, who hugged coach Kurt Bogaerts at the finish, said: “Kurt has spent so much time with me since my crash, planning every single day to optimise the limited time we had to prepare for this race.

“I think it’s as much down to him as my hard work. It all looks pretty nice now but there were so many days of suffering and hard work to get here.

“These guys understand. The time he’s put in to me is incredible. We go hand in hand and it’s as much down to him as it is to me really.”

Pidcock has an incredibly varied résumé given he competes in mountain biking, cyclo cross, electric bikes and road and track cycling.

There will be no rest for the wicked this summer as he will race for new team Ineos Grenadiers in the three-week Vuelta Grand Tour in August and September.

To prepare for the heat and humidity, ingenious Pidcock did 45-minute sessions on a static bike in a super-hot heated tent at home.

The only problem was that the system generated so much power that it kept tripping the electricity in his property!

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