Tom Pidcock of Great Britain won the elite men’s cross-country world title at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glentress Forest. He finished 19 seconds clear of New Zealand’s Sam Gaze, with ten-time world champion Nino Schurter taking bronze. The rainbow jersey joined the cyclo-cross world title he already held.
A race decided on the sixth climb
Pidcock started deep in the field, crossing the first split in 33rd from a fifth-row grid slot. By the end of the opening lap he had carved through the pack to reach the tail of the front group, only 13 seconds off the lead. The early race belonged to Schurter and Alan Hatherly, who opened a gap on the chasers.
Pidcock bridged across to form a leading trio as the third of nine 3.5-kilometre laps began. The three rode together at the front until the sixth lap, when the Briton attacked hard up a steep hill and shed Hatherly. Schurter clung on briefly, but Pidcock struck again on the next major climb and put six seconds into the Swiss rider in a single ascent.
From that point he rode alone. Behind him Gaze was cutting through the field, passing Schurter and closing to within 12 seconds of the leader as the final lap began. The New Zealander ran out of road, and Pidcock crossed the line with his margin largely intact.
Britain’s first XCO world crown
The victory made Pidcock the first British man ever to claim the elite cross-country world title. It added an Olympic discipline rainbow jersey to the cyclo-cross one he secured in Fayetteville in 2022, and sat alongside the Olympic gold he had already won in Tokyo.
A mechanical threat sharpened the drama. Pidcock’s gears were slipping in the closing laps, forcing him to ride cautiously on the descents rather than press his full advantage. “I thought my race could be over at any point. I couldn’t go properly because I didn’t want to put it under too much stress,” he told reporters afterwards.
The day had opened with a heavy crash from Mathieu van der Poel, who had aimed to hold all three off-road world titles simultaneously. Pidcock, unscathed and precise when it mattered, left Scotland with two of them.
