Boos greeted Tom Pidcock as he crossed the line in front of a partisan French crowd to claim the gold medal in the Mountain Bike Cross-Country race at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The reaction came after Pidcock got his elbows out and squeezed past home favourite Viktor Koretzky with less than 1km to go before the finish line in a race led mostly by the Frenchman.

ELANCOURT, FRANCE – JULY 29: Thomas Pidcock of Team Great Britain celebrates at finish line as gold medal winner during the Men’s Cross-Country on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Elancourt Hill on July 29, 2024 in Elancourt, France. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

“I’m keeping my glasses on for a reason,” an emotional Pidcock told the BBC after crossing the line to take gold. “The Olympics is so special. You never give up, you give everything, and that’s what I had to do.”

Pidcock suffered an early front puncture, and slightly botched wheel change, that looked set to end his chances. “Thinks were going so well my mechanic was not ready,” Pidcock said. “But he did a super fast change in the end, my bike was perfect apart from the puncture.”

He put in a super human effort to regain the lead, before attacking almost immediately in an effort to drop Koretzky and South African Alan Hatherley.

But Koretzky stuck to his wheel like glue, and launched his own savage attack at the top of the final climb, to open up a 20m gap on the Brit. A bobble off camera brought the two riders back together on the final run-in to the finish, and Pidcock, seeing a split line around a tree, dived to the inside and accelerated, getting his wheel ahead of Koretzky before the tracks converged, and forcing the French rider to brake and unclip. This was enough to create a gap and earn Pidcock his second Olympic XCO Gold medal.

In a post-race interview to Adam Blythe of Discovery Plus/Eurosport, Tom Pidcock was unapologetic about his last lap move; “Rubbing’s racing!” the young star said, quoting Days of Thunder (the NASCAR film with Tom Cruise). “I couldn’t get rid of Viktor. I knew how fast he is on the last lap. In the end I just had to go for a gap. It’s what I’ve always done and the Olympics no different. I’m sorry for him, his the support was amazing, but it’s the Olympics, you’ve got to go all-in.”

Pidcock told the BBC: “That’s racing, some people might view it differently… but that’s what sport is, not giving up.”