From the start of the Olympic cross-country race, Mathias Flückiger and Nino Schurter are still in the large leading group. And the pace is high and provokes mistakes: Already in the early stages, co-favorite Matthieu van der Poel says goodbye with a terrible crash. Although the Dutchman resumed the race and fought his way up to 13th place, he later abandoned the race anyway.

At the front, it is now the two Swiss riders who dictate the pace and Flückiger, who tests his rivals with a small attack. The lead is visibly narrowing down to Pidcock and the two Swiss riders. The New Zealander Anton Cooper also fights to catch up from time to time.

Small riding errors increasingly creep in, leading to a further reduction in the leading group, but halfway through the race Thomas Pidcock takes advantage of this and leads the race alone. However, Mathias Flückiger does not give up and manages to keep the gap the same for a long time. On the final laps, the Swiss rider's gap increases again and only a total collapse, defects or crashes would change the first two positions. Behind him, on the other hand, the battle for bronze becomes ever tighter, especially as the Spaniard David Valero Serrano catches up with the chasing group.

Nothing changes in the front order, the Briton is not entirely surprisingly the Olympic champion ahead of Mathias Flückiger. Behind him, a duel for bronze broke out between the unleashed Valero and the technically much stronger Schurter. In the end, it was Valero who won another medal for Spain after Coloma in Rio. "Fourth place is a bit ungrateful, but a fourth place was still missing from my collection," jokes Nino Schurter, having amassed an entire Olympic medal set since Beijing. "I was able to ride my pace well until halfway through the race, but when Pidcock opened up a gap, I started to struggle. After that I was still able to fight for bronze, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. But I gave it my all in this tough race and that was my goal."

Mathias Flückiger is not yet in the mood to celebrate after crossing the finish line: "I'm not beaming that much yet, I wanted to win after all and I would have been ready. But in the middle of the race I made two riding mistakes and I was unable to close the gap that opened up afterwards. Nevertheless, I was able to deliver again today in what was probably the most important race of my life. But I still need some time to digest before I'm satisfied with silver."

After Flückiger and Schurter, however, the Olympic cross-country race in Tokyo does not end. Filippo Colombo, the third Swiss rider in the team, got off to a bad start, got caught, but then rode a strong race and finished in a good twelfth place. This is the Swiss mountain bikers' best team performance at the Olympic Games to date.

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