Sam Gaze turned in a typically courageous ride in the men’s cross-country mountain biking today, but couldn’t quite bring home a medal. After a gruelling 1h 28min ride, he had to settle for 6th.
Gaze was looking for a big Olympic performance to cap off a stellar career that includes two Commonwealth Games gold medals. On a tough, demanding course he looked well on target after five laps of the eight-lap race.
The 28-year-old New Zealander had a difficult start when he was squeezed on the first corner and found himself back in the pack early on, having lost more than half a minute on the leaders. He gradually worked his way through the field – 16th after the first lap and 14th after the second.
After three laps he was 8th and when he had slotted into 4th at the halfway point, things looked very promising. The question was: had his brilliant ride through the field taken too much out of him for the decisive final laps?
The quality of the riding was outstanding. In the end Gaze wasn’t quite able to match the strength of the leaders. He was never far away, but didn’t have the strength left to challenge for a medal.
The race was won by Briton Tom Pidcock in 1h 26min 22s after a rugged battle with long-time race leader Victor Koretzky of France, who finished nine seconds behind. South African Alan Hatherly was third, another two seconds back.
“I gave it everything I had,” said Gaze. “I had a horrible start but got back into a position where I thought a medal was a possibility.
"The race was ridiculously fast and I just didn’t have it when the pressure went on near the end, even though I put everything I had into it.”