Fincham fifth under-23 cross country world championships
Tom Pidcock scores second world championship title in three days in Austria
Photo by: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content PoolTom Pidock extended his incredible winning streak with a win in Friday’s under-23 men’s cross country race. The young Brit, signed to race for Ineos on the road in 2021, landed his second world championship title in three days.
Sean Fincham led the results for Canada, finishing incredibly close to the podium in fifth.
Great day for Canadian riders
After two top-10 results in last week’s World Cups, Sean Fincham again led the Canadian squad with a top-5 result at world championships Friday. With treacherous mud quickly spreading riders out on course and causing big time gaps at the finish, Fincham was just 41 seconds away from a podium placing in his final race as a U23.
Fincham wasn’t the only one on form in Austria, though. All five Canadians finished in the top-25 on Friday.
RELATED: How to watch 2020 UCI mountain bike world championships in Canada
Carter Woods, in his first year of under-23, placed an impressive 15th. Close behind the young Cumberland rider, a trio of Canucks crossed the line within a minute of each other. Gunnar Holmgren finished 20th, Quinton Disera 22nd and Tyler Orschel 23rd.
The under-23 women race before the elite’s on Saturday. Marianne Théberge is the lone Canadian in the field. While mud makes racing unpredictable, Théberge had an excellent top-1o finish in inclimate weather at Nove Mesto World Cup #1 last week.
Elite cross country racing takes place on Saturday as well. Canadian’s can tune in live on FloBikes.
Pidcock’s wild two-week winning streak
Friday belonged to one rider, though. Tom Pidcock stormed away early on with the U.S.A.’s Christopher Blevins. It wasn’t long before Pidcock was alone, though, and the Brit soloed off the front to win the under-23 men’s XCO world championships.
The win is Pidcock’s second in three days. On Wednesday, he won the second-ever eMTB cross country world championships. The epically muddy race saw him battling with elite World Cup winner Simon Andreassen.
In addition, Pidcock won two under-23 World Cup’s last week in Nove Mesto. Those also happened to be the young phenom’s first mountain bike World Cup appearances. A week before that, Pidcock finished 42nd in the elite road world championships. That’s five incredibly strong results for Pidcock, added to his silver medal in the elite cyclocross world championships early in 2020.
For Pidcock, crossing between disciplines is no big deal. “It’s not difficult to ride the different bikes. If you the skills to run a mountain bike, you can do anything else,” he said in his post-race interview, adding, “I think that’s important, for young riders to ride off-road.”
? "This is my last U23 race so it's nice to finish on a high"
Hear from @Tompid in his post-race interview #Leogang2020 pic.twitter.com/ydXAgcl8LC
— UCI MTB (@UCI_MTB) October 9, 2020
While Pidcock’s signed to powerhouse road team Ineos for 2021, he’s not limiting himself to the road. Much like Mathieu van der Poel, he’ll continue mixing disciplines. Pidcock’s said there’s already off-road appearances penciled into his calendar for next year. With the Olympics still scheduled to take place in Tokyo, the young rider might have his eyes on a spot in the XCO race in Japan.
Results: Under 23 Men’s XCO – 2020 UCI mountain bike world championships
1 | PIDCOCK Thomas | 1:08:15 | ||||
2 | BLEVINS Christopher | +1:52 | ||||
3 | ROTH Joel | +3:05 | ||||
4 | AVONDETTO Simone | +3:21 | ||||
5 | FINCHAM Sean | +3:46 | ||||
6 | VIDAURRE KOSSMANN Martin | +3:50 | ||||
7 | ALBIN Vital | +4:58 | ||||
8 | FONTANA Filippo | +5:05 | ||||
9 | ALLARD Basile | +5:21 | ||||
10 | ZANOTTI Juri | +5:27 | ||||
11 | PUNTENER Fabio | +5:48 | ||||
12 | LIST David | +5:53 | ||||
13 | SCHATTI Luca | +6:29 | ||||
14 | BASTOS GALINSKI Ulan | +6:37 | ||||
15 | WOODS Carter | +6:53 | ||||
16 | MOISEIEV Hennadii | +7:40 | ||||
17 | CHENEVAL Loan | +7:40 | ||||
18 | ALDRIDGE Charlie | +7:59 | ||||
19 | VITTONE Andreas Emanuele | +8:04 | ||||
20 | HOLMGREN Gunnar | +8:14 | ||||
21 | AZZARO Mathis | +8:22 | ||||
22 | DISERA Quinton | +8:26 | ||||
23 | ORSCHEL Tyler | +8:35 | ||||
24 | KAISER Leon Reinhard | +9:05 | ||||
25 | BALMER Alexandre | +9:12 |