“I want to dedicate this win to Finlay Tarling and Josh” - Tom Pidcock pays emotional tribute after stunning MTB world title
Mountain BikeSunday, 30 August 2026 at 18:53
Tom Pidcock dedicated his elite cross-country world title at the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships to Finlay Tarling and his brother Josh after storming from the fifth row of the grid to victory in Val di Sole.
The two-time Olympic champion recovered from around 32nd position after the opening start loop, worked his way through the field and eventually broke clear of Charlie Aldridge on the penultimate lap.
Immediately after taking the rainbow jersey, Pidcock dedicated the victory to the Tarling family."I want to dedicate this win to Fin Tarling and Josh [Tarling] - seeing him start the Vuelta was pretty incredible," Pidcock said. "I want to dedicate this to him and his family."
Finlay Tarling died earlier this month following a crash at the Volta a Portugal, with Josh subsequently making the decision to start the 2026 Vuelta a Espana for Netcompany INEOS.
Pidcock reveals painful build-up to world title
Pidcock also revealed afterwards that he had crashed heavily during course practice on Friday and had been dealing with back pain from the very beginning of Sunday's eight-lap race.
"I crashed pretty badly in practice on Friday and my back was hurting from the first lap. The last two laps I just had to push and stretch that gap before a final sprint. That was a pretty hard race," he added.
Pidcock's limited mountain-bike programme had left him deep on the grid alongside Mathieu van der Poel, and both were initially caught in traffic through the early technical sections. Pidcock nevertheless surged towards the front, joined the leaders and then repeatedly attacked on the climbs, dropping Cole Punchard, short-track world champion Adrien Boichis and Martin Vidaurre Kossmann before finally distancing Aldridge.
Van der Poel never completed the same recovery and eventually finished 30th, 4:44 behind Pidcock.
The victory gave Pidcock a second elite XCO world title, three years after his 2023 triumph, alongside his Olympic gold medals from Tokyo and Paris. He had reached the start in Val di Sole with a painful back and a poor grid position, but left with another rainbow jersey and one he chose to dedicate to the Tarling family.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Yessss Pidders! What a win. Once again, doing us proud. Shame MVDP faded, used to love his battles with Pidcock. But, from a purely biased perspective, it is great to see Pidcock dominate someone who is usually so dominant in his other fields.anonymouscyclist30-08-2026
- No it was my fault. I'm very guilty of using "luck" or the lack of it as a kinder way of commenting on a riders poor performance.Cyclingsbestfan30-08-2026
- Mas has had a great start to the Vuelta, but as long as Primoz doesn't crack, there are some stages that suit him more and there's still a 33km TT coming up. His form was a question mark coming into this race, but my money is on him by the end of it. Six GT career wins sounds like a picture perfect road to retirement. He really is the best guy to never win the Tour.awp30-08-2026
- Ok, accepted :-) Just think he wasn’t really in form or ready or just had a bad day, like can happen to anyoneJumpyjohn30-08-2026
- It’s a valid stance but by no means guaranteed, there are plenty of people who do not or aren’t interested to learn from what they would first even have to recognise as mistakes, look at humans (or simply history or families) as a whole. Also, I do not know of many employees who do not NOTICE or come under pressure from employers, that doesn’t mean they will crumble but of course they get influenced. As for doing what’s good for your athletes, you only have to look at the number of past players with problems to see how many didn’t have their best interests at heart. Also, HOW would Tadej himself know if he was ready, this is the guy who wanted to get up to continue racing. As soon as he feels CAPABLE he’ll want to go for it, like a drunk or tired person who wants to drive his car home, CAPABLE is not a valid appreciation of a global situation. Who should we pick as example, Lindsey Vonn perhaps? Who stopped her?Jumpyjohn30-08-2026
- I should have made it clearer. I thought you would understand the context. When I say luck it then functions as a metaphor when you compare misfortune or random timing to tangible physical forces, objects, or paths.Cyclingsbestfan30-08-2026
- Sorry but it’s not always about luck and it certainly doesn’t seem like it this time.Jumpyjohn30-08-2026
- How predictable. You keep moaning about people from other nations being biased concerning « balkan » riders but it seems you’re the only one with a nation bias. In any case, you don’t give much credit or respect to foreigners who support « your » riders and you don’t seem to realise that an awful lot of cycling fans’ favourite riders are not from their own country.. I am very happy that like in some other sports, most fans can keep nationalism out of their admiration.Jumpyjohn30-08-2026
- I take the stance that you learn from your mistakes. Gianetti is no different. Do you honestly think that Pogacar (now a multi millionare) is going to race before being absolutely ready and would be influenced in that decision by money or by Gianetti?Cyclingsbestfan30-08-2026
- That’s the thing about being in shock, your body and mind make you lose your senses and you imagine you can do anything.Jumpyjohn30-08-2026
Loading
Write a comment