Pidcock called out for unsportsmanship-like riding after XCC crash
Schwarzbauer says no "real" mountain biker would ride like that
Photo by:
FloBikes
It took just 20 minutes for Tom Pidcock’s post-Tour de France return to mountain biking to cause controversy. The British rider stormed to a bronze medal in Thursday’s short track cross country world championships race (XCC), but only after colliding with German powerhouse Luca Schwarzbauer in the penultimate corner.
Schwarzbauer followed eventual race winner Sam Gaze and second place finisher Victor Koretzky into the final corner, taking the same line as the two leaders. Pidcock came flying from behind on an inside line, bounced off the German – or lose grip and carve in the loose dirt – put a foot down to stabilize himself, and rode away to take bronze. The move left Schwarzbauer in the dust, literally, as Pidock’s moved pushed him off balance into the gravel, where he crashed.
Schwarzbauer would finish ninth by the time he picked himself up out of the dirt and was quick to confront Pidcock in the finish area but the Brit apparently denied any fault. The big German says Pidcock’s racing was out of line, not just off line.
“In my opinion, this move in the very last corner was not fair, but everyone is allowed to have their own opinion on it,” Schwarzbauer posted online. “It’s easily said, Tom crashed me out. He completely rode into me in that corner,” the German added in comments to the press.
Schwarzbauer hinted that he thinks the Brit’s star power helped him get away with the move unchallenged.
“He’s Tom Pidcock, he’s a superstar, but that doesn’t give him the right to do something like that.”
Pidcock, of course, sees the situation differently. Dismissively, one could argue.
“I went for the inside and pushed him out on to the gravel and then Luca’s crashed unfortunately,” Pidcock said of how events unfolded. Asked directly if there had been contact with Schwarzbauer, the Guardian reports all the Brit responded was: “Probably.”
Pidcock went further in defending himself later on. In comments to PA Media, the Ineos racer argued “If you no longer go for a gap then you’re no longer a racing driver. Of course, I did not mean to cause him to crash and I’m sorry for that.”
While Pidcock may not have meant to cause Schwarzbauer to crash, one angle of footage of the corner makes it hard to argue that he didn’t mean to make contact. The Brit enters the corner at a speed and angle that would make it difficult for him to make the corner without any strategic contact. The live feed footage on FloBikes, though, makes it look like Pidcock is at least partway in front and already cornering by the time any contact happens.
While Schwarzbauer has not filed an official protest, he’s clear that he thinks Pidcock crossed an unwritten code, if not explicitly breaking the rules.
“I think no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, from the community,” the German said, hinting at Pidcock’s only occasional (if very successful) appearances on the cross country World Cup circuit. “He’s so aggressive, you can really see he’s the most aggressive rider, no one else rides like this. When he rides like this, I’m going to crash because he was straight into me and he used me as a barrier.”
