Tom Pidcock outsprints Vlad Dascalu to take his second World Cup win of the season

Tom Pidcock outsprinted Vlad Dascalu to win the  Nové Město World Cup seven days after winning in Albstadt. The Ineos rider won in spite of some mechanical problems with his bike and
lackluster legs.

“That was a difficult race,” he said at the line. “If I’m honest I felt crap all race. I just couldn’t push, I had one pace. I just couldn’t go hard enough to split it, but the pace we were going was
quite comfortable, it was weird.”

As always, the race got off to a fast start with the riders staying bunched up for the first several minutes of the start lap. Dascalu showed his dominance as he was the first man into the first
singletrack section of the race, followed by Sam Gaze and Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo. Pidcock didn’t show his nose until the first full lap of the race, coming to the front as the course
passed through the second split time check. He opened a small gap but the leaders came together again on the next climb.

Read also: Rebecca McConnell continues winning streak at Nové Město World Cup

Schurter made an early move during lap three just before the Shimano Expert Climb, a steep, rocky, and root-filled section of trail, but he was not able to gain much of an advantage. Midway
through lap five, heartbreak struck when the Swissman fell back with a rear flat tire.

“I was trying to force them to do mistakes, but then I was the only one that did a mistake and I had a flat unfortunately but that’s racing, when you risk, sometimes it’s a bit too much,” Schurter
said.

Dascalu and Pidcock pressed on followed by Mathias Flückiger. Even though Schurter fell to 17th by the time he was exiting the tech zone with a new wheel, split times showed that he was
climbing faster than the lead group.

The multi-time Olympic champion regained the leaders as they were crossing the line with one lap to go. Dascalu put in an attack, and Pidcock locked to be struggling. However, Pidcock
chased hard as the Romanian threw down another attack on the subsequent dirt road climb.

Schurter trailed by 30 seconds, and Anton Cooper and Alan Hatherly rounded out the Top 5.

“I just was racing full gas to try to catch one group after the other and I got in a good flow,” Schurter said. “I caught one after the other and then finally I saw the leading group, then I went
all out to catch them just into the last lap but then unfortunately for the last pedal I didn’t have enough energy anymore to battle for the win.

“I’m really happy about my performance, how I got back to the group and how I was feeling during the race.”

“I knew that if I could just hold the gap to Vlad in that last lap then [with] the headwind in the finish, I would be able to come past him,” Pidcock explained after the finish.

Pidcock mentioned bike problems, which the commentators speculated could have been related to his suspension, however Pidcock offered few details when asked about what was happening.