Men Elite XCO Highlights | 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships | @TISSOT

Well, the lights go green and away go the men for the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. This is the Olympic distance and they are out and on the course. Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel a little bit further back down the pack as well as Alan Halfley, but it's the French riders on the front at the moment. There's Harkett coming from Pidcock yet again on this climb. He's closing down and taking the places one by one. But you can see riders very aware of that, trying to stay on the back wheel. There's a gap starting to form at the front of the race at the moment on the climb here towards the end of lap number one. You see the gap is really open between our leading group. It was six seconds of that section of climb. Now that is getting bigger. And there's the move on the climb from Pidcock to go up and round the front of the pack. So Christopher Blevins was on the front, now Pidcock attacks because he wants that line into the descent. Meanwhile, the front of the race, Aldridge makes a move up on the inside there, just looking to take that slightly tighter line, moving it from the back of the group. Punchard out of the saddle, swings the bike from side to side. Pidcock sat down, tapping out the rhythm. As we drop in with Tom Pidcock and you can see nobody in front of him, nobody behind him at the moment. He's chasing those riders, that leading group of eight. And you can see how long it took that drone to get across from Pidcock to the back of that leading group. At the moment, Charlie Aldridge, Adrien Boischy and Martin Vidaury-Cosman, the three riders clear at the front. And there is a small gap at the moment back. Pidcock, he can see he's got to get up there. He wants to get in there. And at the moment, that's where he is heading. Our leading three riders are together. Aldridge takes a long look over his shoulder. He can see Pidcock coming now. Pidcock has joined the front of the group after setting off in 34th place in the fifth row of the grid. This is where the riders are really pushing hard. And normally you would expect the gaps to close up, not extend. But Punchard has decided he's not going to make it easy. He's not going to let Pidcock get recovery. He knows the danger. Pidcock struggling to stay in contention at the moment with the pace in this front group. And it's being set by Cole Punchard, the Canadian. Pidcock making a move on the ascent here. Pidcock takes a look over his shoulder. He's looking at how much damage he's done. And the man he's done the damage to is Adrian Boischi. Three riders clear at the front of this race. Vittari-Cosman is losing ground here. The gap is opening. Aldridge, big dive on the inside. Tom Pidcock takes the bell in one and the gap is there already. Cole Punchard has gone past Martin Vittari-Cosman. Punchard has just ridden himself into third place. Tom Pidcock with a gap. It's going to be almost all of the full cross track here at Val di Sole in Trentino. And look at this. Tom Pidcock from Great Britain. The UCI 2026 Mountain Bike Men's Elite World Champion.