Mountain Bike 2020 Tokyo Olympic Review

Men’s Cross Country

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) started as the favourite, but a massive crash early left him a long way behind. Henrique Avancini (Brazil) led at the end of the first lap from Nino Schurter (Switzerland) and Milan Vader (Netherlands). Schurter was soon joined by compatriot Mathias Fluckiger (Switzerland), but they could not put a gap together and Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) soon took the lead. As the trio kept battling for the lead, they were joined by Anton Cooper (New Zealand). Before long, Fluckiger and Pidcock had broken away from the group. Entering lap five, Pidcock escaped on his own. Piddock led by 11 seconds with two laps to go and a big gap further back to Cooper, Schurter, Ondrej Cink (Czech Republic) and Victor Koretzky (France). Cink made it into third before a mechanical issue dashed his hopes. Only 21, Pidcock continues to lead, extending the gap to Flueckiger as the battle was going on between Cooper, Koretzky and Schurter. With a lap remaining his gap was 14 seconds. They had 40 seconds back to third, where David Valero (Spain) had joined the trio. On the final lap, the battle seemed to be for the bronze and Valero began to pull away from Schurter until a mistake at a corner but still managed to hold onto the bronze.

🥇Tom Pidcock 🇬🇧

🥈Mathias Fluckiger 🇨🇭

🥉David Valero 🇪🇸

Women’s Cross Country

Loana Lecomte (France) started quickly, working her way to the front and led at the end of the start lap ahead of Laura Stigger (Austria). At the end of the first lap though, it was Jolanda Neff (Switzerland) ahead of Evie Richards (Great Britain), Lecomte, Sina Frie (Switzerland) and Linda Indergand (Switzerland). The following lap, Neff had opened the gap to 46 seconds to Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France) ahead of Frie, Indergand and Richards. By the end of the third lap, it was a Swiss 1-2-3 with Neff leading Frei and Indergand. Lecomte had her own group 40 seconds back with Richards and Anne Tauber (Netherlands). The main battle as the riders entered the third lap was for the second and third as the rest of the field was spread out. Neff had a gap of 1.27 to the chasing pair and they had 48 seconds to Leconte, Anne Terpstra (Netherlands) and Kata Blanka Vas (Hungary). That last lap was a procession for Neff who rolled in a minute ahead of her teammates. It was Frei who came second with Indergand in third for a momentous podium sweep for the Swiss. Vas came in almost a minute later.

🥇Jolanda Neff 🇨🇭

🥈Sina Frie 🇨🇭

🥉Linda Indergand 🇨🇭