With the elegance of the great champions and the elegance of the super-class, the British Thomas Pidcock crossed the finish line in the mountain biking of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. A fierce pass over the local Koretzky less than two kilometers from the finish line. finish gave him the victory, after even overcoming a puncture and a fall in the middle of the track set up on the Colline d’Élancourt.

Pidcock, 24, thus confirmed his title as Olympic champion and climbed to the top of the podium just as he did in Tokyo 2020. In the world of cycling today there are two names that take all the praise. The British in the mountains and the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar in the big distances. The great absentee from Paris 2024 jumped to memory when he saw how Pidcock once again showed himself as the absolute dominator of his discipline and raised the question, to whom does the current reign of cycling belong? Two big names shining on the big stages.

It is a consultation between fierce dominators. Pidcock won Olympic gold again, but on the world mountain bike circuit he had already been demonstrating his potential for some time. To the medal won in Paris we must add the world title won in 2023 and the European title in 2022. That in cross country, because in cyclocross it also adds other world titles.

Pogacar in the Tour de France (Pieter van der Woude/Orange Pictures).

Pidcock today dazzles in the mountains, but it also has history on the road. In 2022 he won a stage of the Tour de France, in the edition in which he finished 16th in the general classification.

The comparison is natural when thinking about Pogacar. The 25-year-old Slovenian is today the man to beat in road cycling. He comes from winning the Giro d’Italia this season and more recently the Tour de France for the third time after 2020 and 2021. He dropped out of the Olympic Games days after celebrating with the yellow jersey, so he will not be able to defend the bronze he obtained in Tokyo.

The question is open and although some may say that the mountains are not the same as long road distances, despite the fact that MTB also mixes consistency, power and resistance, they are two big names on the table. Each one dominant in their discipline and who, without a doubt, magnify the great moment of world cycling.