Tom Pidcock steals the show to become 2022 European XCO Champion

On the Olympiapark circuit in Munich, a colossal Tom Pidcock has just been proclaimed European XCO Champion 2022. It took him less than 5 laps to go from the 35th position to lead the race alone, from there no rival came close to him.

Tom Pidcock wins the 2022 XCO European Championships with a spectacular performance

The race was contested over 8 laps on a completely artificial course with hardly any gradients or technical difficulties, which foreshadowed a race of endurance.

From the start, the Germans, with Maximilian Brandl and Luca Schwarzbauer, and Switzerland, with Filippo Colombo leading the way after Mathias Flueckiger was suspended for doping, took the lead. In this first leading group, only the Frenchman Victor Koretzky managed to catch up with the Germans and Swiss.

The first big surprise was how calmly the British rider Tom Pidcock took the start of the race. After riding in 35th place for the first few kilometres, it wasn't until lap 3 that we saw the Olympic champion in the first group, in eighth position.

Just over halfway through the race, Frenchman Joshua Dubau launched a very timid attack to open up a small gap, and it was this move that first seemed to wake up Tom Pidcock, who jumped from behind to close the gap to Dubau, rejoin the group and take the lead of the race.

Before the end of lap 4, just as a light rain started to fall, Pidcock attacked on the steepest climb of the circuit to break the race and take the lead alongside Victor Koretzky and Filippo Colombo.

 

He followed up this attack over the next few kilometres and set a very high pace that also dropped Koretzky and Colombo at the start of lap 5. Jumping from 35th position to lead the race alone with a 10-second lead took him just 42 minutes over Tom Pidcock.

Pidcock's recital was one that no rival in the race would like to experience and his gap was already 30 seconds over a chasing group that included the entire Swiss team plus Koretzky and Denmark's Sebastian Fini.

The final bell rang and nothing seemed to change in the race. Pidcock continued his triumphant march towards his first XCO European Championships in the Elite category, and behind him, with a gap between 20 and 30 seconds, the rest of the medals were going to be decided in a large group.

With no further surprises, the British rider managed his gap well to avoid wasting energy ahead of next week's World Championships and reached the finish line in Munich alone to be proclaimed the new XCO European Champion.

The silver medal finally went to Denmark's Sebastian Fini Cartensen and the bronze to Switzerland's Filippo Colombo.

Results European Championships Men XCO 2022

1. PIDCOCK Thomas GBR
2. CARSTENSEN Sebastian Fini DEN
3. COLOMBO Filippo SUI
4. KORETZKY Victor FRA
5. LITSCHER Thomas SUI
6. SCHUERMANS Jens BEL
7. FORSTER Lars SUI
8. FRISCHKNECHT Andri SUI
9. ALBIN Vital SUI
10. SCHWARZBAUER Luca GER