RESULTS: Men's Elite XCO Paris 2024 1

The stage was set in Paris for a historic French XCO double, after Pauline Ferrand Prevot took home the gold in the women's final yesterday. The weather was once again on its best behavior, and things got off to an auspicious start for the home nation as Victor Koretzky was keeping pace with England's Tom Pidcock for the first two laps. Koretzky was then handed what looked like a golden opportunity when Pidcock suffered a puncture and a particularly slow tech zone intervention saw him head back out on the course some 40 seconds down on the Frenchman. Pidcock then spent a couple of laps seemingly unable to close the gap to the leader, but eventually launched an attack that saw him close the gap in a matter of a single lap. At that point we expected him to run away with the race, but Koretzky was visibly still fresh and was able to easily stay with Pidcock every time the Englishman attacked. South Africa's Alan Hatherly had slipstreamed his way back in contention behind Pidcock's big effort to rejoin the leader, but was never really a factor as the race entered its final stage. The last lap turned into an incredible fight between Koretzky and Pidcock, with one seemingly gaining the upper hand only for the other to respond in kind. Pidcock then pulled off a majestic block pass in the very last wood section, by picking the inside line and powering slightly ahead of Koretzky at the entrance to the following turn, providing him with a gap of a few precious seconds that he would hold onto all the way to the finish line.

The French crowd no doubt feeling robbed booed him at the line, but the passing move looked legal to us and that last lap will go down as one of the more exciting finishes we've seen at a cross country race to date. All credit to Tom for managing to find a way to overcome a 40-second deficit and a hotly contested last lap on what looked like a day when he was not at the height of his powers (note: he did pull out of the Tour de France only two weeks ago with Covid).

2024 Paris SCO Results - Elite Men