The elite men's world championship race does not start as planned for all participants. Mathieu Van der Poel crashed on the opening lap and retired from the race shortly afterwards. An eight-man lead group forms at the front, which is soon reduced to four riders. They are Nino Schurter, Alan Hatherly (RSA), the Belgian Pierre de Froidmont and Jordan Sarrou (FRA). But behind them, Tom Pidcock is gradually stalking them.

On the third of eight laps, the Briton is up to speed, but Froidmont is no longer there. And just one lap later, Sarrou also falls victim to the high pace. The leaders were still riding as a trio until the sixth lap, but then another rider, Alan Hatherly, was taken out of the elimination race. And on the same lap, Tom Pidcock goes on the attack and Nino Schurter is unable to keep up with the Brit's pace.

While Pidcock extends his lead to 20 seconds, New Zealander Sam Gaze crawls past Schurter. The defending champion is able to hold on to Gaze until the middle of the final lap, but then has to let him go. Not far behind Schurter, Victor Koretzky is on the chase.

Gaze continues to catch up, but this no longer jeopardizes the British rider's cross-country world championship title. Tom Pidcock wins ahead of Sam Gaze, Nino Schurter can maintain his position against Koretzky and wins bronze. "There was nothing more to it today. I tried to keep up, but then almost collapsed and had to defend against Koretzky. Of course I had hoped for more, but it's still nice that it was enough for another medal," says Schurter.

The second Swiss rider to finish was Lars Forster in eighth place, a good result that could have been much better, as he himself admits: "I'm very happy with my performance, I had great legs. Unfortunately, I had a puncture on the third lap, which I can't really explain. Without this mishap, I might have been in contention for the medals."

Mathias Flückiger was hampered several times after the start, dropped back and finished a disappointing twelfth. His teammate Vital Albin finished 14th and Marcel Guerrini 16th. Thomas Litscher was still in eleventh position in the first third of the race when he crashed heavily and rolled off the track in pain. However, he is able to resume the race and finishes in a good 22nd place, just behind fellow national team member Joel Roth.

Results

A Scot wins at home

The front row of the men's U23 race was very well filled with the four different winners of this year's U23 UCI World Cup races: Oliver Vedersø Sølvhøj (DEN), Dario Lillo (SUI), Adrien Boichis (FRA) and (CAN).

Canadian Carter Woods, the co-favorite, is quickly out of the running for the medals due to a mechanical problem. While the train at the front departs with local Charlie Aldridge and Switzerland's Dario Lillo, Adrien Boichis (FRA) and Riley Amos (USA), Woods resumes the race in last place. After one lap, the leaders have pulled out a twelve-second lead over their closest pursuers.

After the halfway point, the quartet is over 20 seconds ahead of the chasing trio. On the fourth lap, at the highest point of the main climb, 22-year-old Aldridge uses his skills on the descent to gain a few seconds on his rivals. Amos starts to feel the pressure and drops off in the fifth of seven laps.

As the bell rings for the final lap, Lillo attacks, but the Scot counters. Boichis then follows up with an attack and Aldridge counters again. This time, however, Lillo can no longer keep up the pace. The Scot kept up the pressure and now pulled away from the Frenchman. After 1:13.53 hours, he wins the gold medal, 13 seconds ahead of Boichis, with Switzerland's Dario Lillo riding a further 16 seconds back to take bronze.

"Winning in front of a home crowd is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I've been thinking about for a long time. The fact that I've now done it is absolutely amazing," said a delighted Aldridge.