Pidcock steals a valuable bronze

A bronze medal will make a man do crazy things. Like crash other people out of the Mountain Bike World Championship short track race.

Tom Pidcock took down Luca Schwarzbauer of Germany in the final right hand corner by being too aggressive. Pidock got the bronze and Schwarzbauer got a tumble onto the grass and gravel.

The German wasn’t too happy and having watched the replay ten times, I don’t understand why Pidcock wasn’t disqualified. The two riders in front of them, winner Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and Victor Koretzky (France) braked to trim their speed and move through the corner without sliding out.

Not Pidcock.

He went at max speed into the turn, cutting inside of Schwarzbauer. When Pidock inevitably swung wide, he pushed into the German and down he went. Pidcock owes him a bronze medal.

“I think no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, the community of us. I know he is Tom Pidcock and he is a superstar but this still doesn’t give him the right to do that,” said Schwarzbauer.

Having seen a few Pidock interviews over the last two years, he seems like a good dude. However, he didn’t seem to admit much remorse about wiping out the German’s chance at bronze. “I went for the inside and pushed him out onto the gravel and then Luca crashed unfortunately,” said Pidcock. That doesn’t even qualify as a fake apology.

You can see Schwarzbauer’s point. This wasn’t mountain biking, this was a WordTour sprinter trying to squeeze through a gap that didn’t exist and if he crashes out several guys, too bad. “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.” Yeah, well.

Race car driver, part-time mountain biker, pushy superstar, either way it was the wrong move according to Schwarzbauer. “You can easily see he is the most aggressive rider. No one else rides like this and for sure you can do this but in my eyes it’s not really sportsman [like].”

That’s what happens when a man sees a World’s bronze just around the corner. It’s safe to say that Luca Schwarzbauer will not be joining the Pidcock fan club.