Cycling World Championships – Men’s cross-country final LIVE – Tom Pidcock going for gold, Mathieu van der Poel crashes

He’s eked out the smallest of gaps to Schurter, and there’s now a much bigger one to Alan Hatherly, who is not even in the same shot now. The South African looks to be out of it.

Our commentators seem to thing Gaze is bringing them back, but I’m not so sure. There’s a good 25 seconds separating them from the front of the field, and it only seems to be increasing on the climb.

And Pidcock hits the front. Hatherly grimacing but digging in.The longer he can stay with these two, the more he adds to his chances of taking home a medal.

He’s only going backwards, more than half a minute off the front now.

That sweeping rock section. It looked as if Hatherly was losing the wheel briefly, but he’s right back on the, umm, back.

He’s making his move early on lap five. Pidcock has to cover this on the climb, and does. Gaze up to 4th now, and Koretzky has channeled his rage into forward momentum. They’ve got a lot of work to do to close this gap, though.

The Frenchman is passed a get and smacks it down in a fury. Ooh er missis.

And Hatherly is being pressured by Schurter to hold that front position. In one of the groups behind, Sam Gaze has just had a stormer of a lap and the short track champion from New Zealand is up to 8th.

And we seem to be down to three. He began to lose it near the middle of the climb and then was a long way back as they negotiated the descent. The Frenchman is already six seconds in arrears. Paying for his earlier effort?

And we may already have our medalists, at least three out of these four. You’d imagine it’s going to be a bit cagey for a while in this middle section of the race. A bunch of matches have been burned, and there are only so many left. It’s all a matter of when the riders want to burn them.

Now we have an XC race. Whose responsibility is it to do something here? Schurter swaps the front of the group for the back. Keen to keep an eye on the British rider?

But Nino Schurter is in no mood to make it easy for him. He has a bit of a conversation with Hatherly, encouraging him to make it as hard as possible. If (when?) Pidcock gets in touch with these three, how much will it have taken out of him?

And still the South African Hatherly in the lead, pulling away slightly with Schurter and Sarou. It seems Pidcock was held up by the Italian, Braidot, and is hitting out in this woody ascent.

Up to seventh on the climb, taking another two places ahead of the start/finish, and looking to get across to the front guys. The question is, how will he, and they, play it once he does? 23 minutes that took him, from 33rd place on the grid.

It’s long, it’s technical, it’s got jumps, and it goes straight onto a climb. Must. Not. Say. Fast. Or. Furious. The South African, ranked 5th in the world, is having a go and doesn’t seem to be too unhappy to pull Schurter and Sarou away with him.

Nino Schurter content to sit in the wheels, while Sarou goes long. Pidcock has moved up to 11th place, at 13 seconds currently.

Jordan Sarou it is who is pushing the pace early on. This was clearly his gameplan and he’s making it happen. Ten-time world champion Schurter isn’t going to let him get away that easily though.

Sarou overtaking him on the first ascent through the woods. Schurter looking good, too while Tom Pidcock looks to gain places. Still got work to do, but he has enough time to do it.

Wow. He was on the move up the field, and he has crashed and burned on the right hander ahead of the finishing straight. He’s in no hurry to get back up. The replay shows him losing the front wheel, and he appears to be quite badly hurt. Some would call that karma. Not me though.

And they’re off on lap one. The crowds are packed in and Jordan Sarou looks to have made the best start, straight out of the blocks. There’s a bit of a coming together on the slight uphill, Cameron Mason one of those impeded. It’s going to take a while for this to settle down on the start loop, which is sort of a modified version of the short track course. There’s 98 entrants in this race today.

And wylcome to live coverage of the men’s mountain cross-country final.

We’re in for a humdinger of race this afternoon – in no small part because there has been no shortage of controversy in the run-up to it – mostly involving the interlopers from the road side of the sport. On Thursday Tom Pidcock was criticised for an overtake he made in the short track final. Germany’s Luca Schwarzbauer was unhappy with the way Pidcock went round him, which he felt forced him to crash out on the final corner of the race. Pidcock went on to take the bronze medal, in a discipline that he doesn’t favour.

about his dismay over the late rule change.

Schurter’s own results, including victory in Trentino in July, means he starts right at the front, and as favourite to retain the title he took last year in Les Gets. He’ll be joined by his fellow leaders in the world rankings – all of the top ten are here, looking to contest the medals, and keep those pesky part-timers at bay.

Speaking of whom, Pidcock is hoping to win the last major title missing from his MTB collection, while a word too, for Peter Sagan. The three-time road world champion is not expected to be up there, but God loves a tryer, eh?