‘I knew I would be good’ – Tom Pidcock reflects on his first European mountain bike title win in Munich

Team GB’s Tom Pidcock won his first European MTB title in Munich last Friday, emerging from the back of the pack to clinch victory in one hour and 18 minutes.

Reflecting on his achievement in a recent interview, Olympic mountain bike cycling champion Pidcock insisted he “knew he would be good” in a surprising display of dominance.

“I knew I would be good, I knew I was in good shape,” Pidcock admitted. “I mean we had time at altitude after the tour, we had feelings but I knew I was in good shape going there.

“I was just tired after the tour, mentally more than anything.

“Normally I kind of know how I feel and what that means, but I didn’t really fully know what was going on after the tour.”

When asked if it took him time to adjust to getting back on the mountain bike, he suggested the mountain bike was “calling”.

He said: “I felt normal again when I came down from altitude, when I arrived in Munich, so maybe mountain bike was calling or something.”

His European win comes a week ahead of the World Championships scheduled in Les Gets, France, on Sunday.

Speaking about his chances in France, the 23-year-old admitted his European success was a chance to prepare for the World Championships.

“Well I needed to win it to get as many points as possible to make my start position as good as possible for Sunday, that was the most important thing.

“To be honest, the European’s, I’m going to be honest it happened to be a race the weekend before the World’s where we wanted to put a race in, and it happened to be the European’s in prep for the World’s and also get points for the World’s, so that’s what it was in my head, but yeah it’s nice being European champion obviously.”

“This (win) gives me confidence for next week, my three big goals for this year have always been the three world championships.”