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There’s No School Like the Gold School

The modern Olympic Games are an amazing blend of old school and new school events, featuring athletic endeavors from bygone eras that have stood the test of time, while fully embracing more modern expressions of athletic performance that would have astonished the ancient Greeks. Take mountain biking, for example: it’s still something of a new sport for the Olympics, but the world has fully embraced the concept that Olympic mountain biking is a worthy expression of the literal gold standard of athletic excellence: Olympic gold.

The course (XCO)
The 4.4 km track in Elancourt Hill on the outskirts of Paris is an entirely man-made affair that was in some ways a throwback to the XCO race tracks of two decades ago: minimal singletrack and taped wide for clear passing, but sprinkled with a liberal number of more modern features: rock gardens, berms, and drops. While many racers derided it as bland, most of them still reached for a dropper seatpost equipped full suspension mountain bike to take the edge off the rough stuff. And regardless of how wide or manicured the track was, it was still a level playing field with enough technical merit to separate the wheat from the chaff. It would require skill and fitness both to earn the gold.

Women’s XCO
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot has been there and done that across multiple disciplines in cycling, earning World Cup wins and World Championship rainbow stripes many times over. She’s been on the hunt in the previous three Olympic Games, but Olympic gold has always eluded her. Until now. On ‘home turf’ the Frenchwoman showed the world what determination and focus can achieve, putting on a master class of mountain bike handling aboard her decidedly old school choice to pursue gold aboard a hard tail for the 7-lap race. Albeit a superbly crafted Pinarello hardtail made of carbon fiber and equipped with SR SUNTOUR’s Vertical Helium dropper post and their most advanced XC race fork: the AXON34 WERX.

With no pre-lap and the wide taping, the first lap wasn’t quite the mad dash for the ‘hole shot’ into the single track that is typical of a World Cup XCO race. But that doesn’t mean the ladies were dragging their heels. It just meant that they drew their knives a touch more quietly than normal, but with just as much determination as ever. In moments the pace allowed by the wide, buffed track was the difference between contenders and pretenders. Ferrand-Prevot, along with three other riders made that cut, and together they swapped leads while extending the gap to the chase

“I went full gas on the uphills and smooth in the downhills and tried to recover.”

With lap one done, the real race began and ended on the first climb of the second lap. A Dutch rider attacked and Ferrand-Prevot then countered with the kind of controlled aggression typically reserved for a cheetah taking on a gazelle. In seconds it was a battle for silver: the Frenchwoman was simply gone, hard tail or no. As the race progressed she simply continued to extend her lead, as ruthlessly as any predator fighting for survival. As she explained afterwards, her strategy was simple: “I went full gas on the uphills and smooth in the downhills and tried to recover.”

“I thought ‘it’s not possible, it’s not possible, it’s not me, it’s a dream.”

That strategy saw the four time Olympian finally come home in a class all by herself: 2:57 ahead of the silver medalist. “I was on a mission,” she stated emphatically. “To be honest, during the race, I didn’t hear anything, I was so focused. I’ve worked so hard for today. I felt amazing today. I can’t believe it!” she said ecstatically after waving to the crowd and hugging her family. “I thought ‘it’s not possible, it’s not possible, it’s not me, it’s a dream.”

Men’s XCO
Tom Pidcock is typically the odds on favorite whenever he toes the line amongst the mountain biking elite. Except when it comes to the Olympics. Then he likes to keep the odds makers guessing. Take Tokyo for example: eight weeks before taking the gold he broke his collarbone. So what’d he do this time around? Oh, just a little race called the Tour de France. Until he had to drop out after 13 stages with a positive Covid test literally two weeks before the XCO Paris race, sparking doubts about his ability to defend his gold medal from Tokyo. 

For this task, Pidcock went new school to Ferrand-Prevot’s old school, selecting his tried and true TACT equipped Pinarello full suspension Dogma, also utilizing a Vertical helium dropper post. Yes, it’s a bit heavier in a sport where every gram counts, but the reliability of the system meant being able to sprint like a scalded monkey on the manicured track while still being able to take full advantage of his bike’s rear suspension off the drops and over the rocks.

…but then disaster struck: a puncture just before the tech zone saw him lose the lead and 36 seconds off the front…

From the start it appeared as if the British phenomenon might not have fully recovered from his bout of Covid, slipping off the front row to 14th position on lap one of eight. But by the start of the second lap he was moving up, and in short order he was with the front group. Pidcock seized the lead on lap three, but then disaster struck: a puncture just before the tech zone saw him lose the lead and 36 seconds off the front—an eternity in an elite level event like the Olympics.

Going from first to ninth was a decidedly difficult situation. “I just tried to stay calm and focus on getting back to the front—that was all I cared about,” recounted Pidcock after the race, a task made all the more difficult by the wide taping of the predominantly smooth course: riders were flat out on the wide sections, making overtaking an exercise in suffering, and then utilizing the single track segments—where overtaking was nearly impossible—as recovery zones. But with five laps remaining Pidcock was confident in his ability to regain the front.

“I just tried to stay calm and focus on getting back to the front—that was all I cared about.”

Over the remainder of the race he showed exactly why he is a rider no one can ever count out. Despite the puncture and the on course traffic, Pidcock turned in three stellar lap times and bridged up to the silver medal rider, but the pair were still some 17 seconds adrift of the leader. Without pausing, Pidcock moved into the silver medal position and kept pushing with the now bronze medal rider clinging to his wheel. Midway through the seventh lap the pair caught the race leader, setting the stage for a three up battle royal on the final lap.

“I knew how fast he was on the last lap. In the end, I just had to go for a gap.”

Pidcock struck first, launching an attack on the first climb that was quickly marked by the other two. Then on the second climb his primary opponent hit the gas hard, spitting the bronze medalist off the back and forcing Pidcock to go all out. With only half a lap to go, it was turning into a genuine nail biter.

“To come here to defend my title…the pressure and expectations…it was a LOT harder.”

“I knew how fast he was on the last lap. In the end, I just had to go for a gap,” stated Pidcock. That gap presented itself at the bottom of a fast, loose descent, as the race leader washed out in a corner, dabbing a foot, and opening a minuscule opportunity. Pidcock pounced, taking an all or nothing inside line and pushing by his opponent. It was the winning move, allowing Pidcock to move clear and claim his second Olympic gold medal in mountain biking!

“I knew it would not be easy today,” said a jubilant but tired Pidcock afterwards. “To come here to defend my title…the pressure and expectations…it was a LOT harder.”

Bravo, Tom; bravo! There is no school like the gold school!