Pidcock's king of the mountain but party is on hold

TOM PIDCOCK woke up this morning to his 25th birthday but with little chance to celebrate.

- Matt Majendie

Having just picked up back-to-back mountain bike Olympics titles, there was a brief visit to the house his parents have rented in Paris, one assumes to open some cards and blow out the candles on his birthday cake.

But his attention was almost immediately shifting to the prospect of an unlikely double in the road race on Saturday.

For most, the thought would be an impossibility, but such is Pidcock’s versatility, not to mention the manner in which he pulled off the gold yesterday, that anything is possible.

In the space of a few weeks, he has gone from vying for stage wins in the Tour de France to switching to mountain biking and then back on to the road.

Asked about his goal in the immediate aftermath of his gold, he said: “I’m too tired to think about that.”