Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's cross-country

Men's cross-country
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic mountain bike cycling
VenueIzu MTB Course
Date26 July 2021
Competitors38 from 29 nations
Winning time1:25:14
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Tom Pidcock  Great Britain
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Mathias Flückiger  Switzerland
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) David Valero  Spain
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The men's cross-country mountain biking event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 26 July 2021 at the Izu MTB Course, Izu, Shizuoka.[1] 38 cyclists from 29 nations competed.[2]

Background

This was the 7th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since mountain bike cycling was added to the programme in 1996.

The reigning Olympic champion was Nino Schurter of Switzerland, and the reigning (2020) World Champion was Jordan Sarrou of France.

A preview by Olympics.com noted Schurter (bronze in 2008, silver in 2012, and gold in 2016, along with 8 World Championships) as a favourite. Other contenders include Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, Victor Koretzky of France, and Luca Braidot of Italy, while Tom Pidcock of Great Britain was rated as a talented outside bet for the title.[3]

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified cyclists in the cross-country. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. Qualification is primarily through the UCI nation rankings, with 30 of the 38 quota places available through that pathway. The top 2 NOCs earned 3 quota places. NOCs ranked 3rd through 7th earned 2 quota places. NOCs ranked 8th through 21st earned 1 quota places. The second path to qualification was continental tournaments for Africa, the Americas, and Asia; the top NOC at each tournament (which had not already earned a quota place) received 1 place. The third path was the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. The top 2 NOCs (without a quota place yet) in the Elite category earned a place; the top 2 NOCs in the U-23 category (without a quota, including through the Elite category) also earned a place. The host nation was reserved one place, to be reallocated through the rankings if Japan earned a place normally.[2] Because qualification was complete by the end of the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Competition format

The competition is a mass-start, seven-lap race. There is only one round of competition. The mountain bike course is 4.1 kilometres (2.5 mi) long, with sudden changes in elevation, narrow dirt trails, and rocky sections. The vertical height is 150 metres (490 ft). Riders with times 80% slower than the leader's first lap are eliminated.[4][5]

Start list

Results

Result[6][7]
Rank # Cyclist Nation Time Diff.
1st place, gold medalist(s) 29 Tom Pidcock  Great Britain 1:25:14
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 2 Mathias Flückiger  Switzerland 1:25:34 + 0:20
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 14 David Valero  Spain 1:25:48 + 0:34
4 1 Nino Schurter  Switzerland 1:25:56 + 0:42
5 7 Victor Koretzky  France 1:26:00 + 0:46
6 13 Anton Cooper  New Zealand 1:26:00 + 0:46
7 11 Vlad Dascălu  Romania 1:26:03 + 0:49
8 10 Alan Hatherly  South Africa 1:26:33 + 1:19
9 4 Jordan Sarrou  France 1:26:50 + 1:36
10 8 Milan Vader  Netherlands 1:27:21 + 2:07
11 21 Anton Sintsov  ROC 1:27:41 + 2:27
12 17 Filippo Colombo  Switzerland 1:28:04 + 2:50
13 3 Henrique Avancini  Brazil 1:28:09 + 2:55
14 20 Christopher Blevins  United States 1:28:13 + 2:59
15 25 Jofre Cullell  Spain 1:28:16 + 3:02
16 30 Martín Vidaurre  Chile 1:28:33 + 3:19
17 31 Max Foidl  Austria 1:28:45 + 3:31
18 24 Jens Schuermans  Belgium 1:29:07 + 3:53
19 19 Bartłomiej Wawak  Poland 1:29:10 + 3:56
20 6 Gerhard Kerschbaumer  Italy 1:29:48 + 4:34
21 15 Maximilian Brandl  Germany 1:29:49 + 4:35
22 18 Sebastian Fini Carstensen  Denmark 1:30:28 + 5:14
23 23 Gerardo Ulloa  Mexico 1:30:57 + 5:43
24 28 Erik Hægstad  Norway 1:31:14 + 6:00
25 12 Luca Braidot  Italy 1:31:30 + 6:16
26 27 Peter Disera  Canada 1:31:45 + 6:31
27 33 Luiz Cocuzzi  Brazil 1:32:21 + 7:07
28 22 Manuel Fumic  Germany 1:32:28 + 7:14
29 32 Kohei Yamamoto  Japan 1:32:35 + 7:21
30 26 Daniel McConnell  Australia 1:33:12 + 7:58
31 37 Alex Miller  Namibia 1:34:26 + 9:12
32 35 András Parti  Hungary 1:35:33 + 10:19
33 36 Shlomi Haimy  Israel 1:36:58 + 11:44
34 16 Nadir Colledani  Italy -1 LAP
35 34 Periklis Ilias  Greece -3 LAP
36 38 Zhang Peng  China
5 Ondřej Cink  Czech Republic DNF
9 Mathieu van der Poel  Netherlands DNF

References

  1. ^ "Cycling Mountain Bike Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Cycling Mountain Bike" (PDF). Union Cycliste Internationale. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  3. ^ "Cycling Mountain Bike". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  4. ^ "UCI CYCLING REGULATIONS PART 3 TRACK RACES" (PDF). UCI. 6 December 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  5. ^ Liam Nee (26 March 2021). "Cycling 101: Competition format". NBC. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  6. ^ "Results" (PDF). 2020 Summer Olympics. Omega SA. 26 July 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Race Analysis" (PDF). 2020 Summer Olympics. Omega SA. 26 July 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.