The Briton Tom Pidcock (Great-Britain) and Loana Lecomte (France) will wear the European champion’s jersey next year in Elite Cross-Country.
Some of the best world specialists competed in the races, which were held at Olympia Park in Munich (Germany) as part of the multi-sport European Championships, where continental championships were held in nine disciplines over 11 days,
The race programme began with the men’s race dominated by the talented British rider Tom Pidcock.
After a slow race start and a fall on the first bend, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion caught up the leading group at the end of the second of the eight-lap spectacular circuit, then imposed his own pace and took the race under control.
Mid-race, Pidcock, winner of the last stage of the Tour de France in Alpe d’Huez, launched an attack with Filippo Colombo (Switzerland) and Victor Koretzky (France), and then broke away alone to cross the finish line 11'' ahead of Sebastian Carstensen (Denmark), who caught up the chasers in the final stages and Filippo Colombo (Switzerland) who completed the podium.
Born in 1999 and current Cyclo-Cross World Champion, this is Pidcock’s first MTB continental title after those won in Cyclo-Cross in 2016 (Junior) and 2018 (Under 23).
In the initial stages, the women’s race was hampered by bad weather and right from the start the two French riders Pauline Ferrand Prevot and Loana Lecomte stayed in the lead, until the current European Champion Ferrand Prevot made a solo attack.
However, mid-race Ferrand Prevot had a mechanical problem and was caught up and overtaken by her compatriot. From then on, Lecomte had no other opponents in her way and the thrilling fight for the podium was battled out behind her.
Pauline Ferrand Prevot finished second, 37" behind her compatriot, and third place went to Anne Terpstra (Netherlands), second last year in Novisad, in 3'08".
The next edition of the Elite MTB European Championships will take place on 25 June 2023 in Krakov-Małopolska (Poland).
Info #EuroMTB22 – click here
