VIDEO: Tom Pidcock under fire from Luca Schwarzbauer after collision and crash - "He's Tom Pidcock, but that doesn't give him the right to do something like that"

Luca Schwarzbauer, winner of the Short Track races at Lenzerheide and Val di Sole, was in contention for a top spot during yesterday's World Championships race. Then he crashed after Tom Pidcock collided with him taking him out of contention, which had him very disappointed and frustrated and the British rider.

“It's easy. Tom crashed me out, he completely rode into me in that corner. On TV, it's not really visible, but I saw a video and felt like he simply crashed into me and it's obvious," Schwarzbauer told CyclingWeekly. “I'm super disappointed for sure because a bronze medal would have been pretty safe. He's Tom Pidcock, but that doesn't give him the right to do something like that. We have to analyse it a little bit better, and so far we didn't protest against it, seeing as he may be distanced, but this doesn't help me at all."

As Pidcock moved through the field he had to overtake plenty riders. A task that is not easy but one where he excelled, however a specific move he did in a left-hand descent section saw him collide with the German on the very last corner of the race. Schwarzbauer was sitting third and Pidcock took that spot to finish on the podium, with the previous ending up in a ninth place, losing all of it in the finishing straight. Pidcock was not punished for the move.

“I said a few words to him and said it was a very bad move in my eyes. At first he said, 'It's part of the racing,' but then he realized I had crashed. But I think he knew already, when he rides like this I'm going to crash because he was straight into me and he used me as a barrier," he continued. "Already before the corner actually he ran full gas into it and I think no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, the community of us. I know he's Tom Pidcock and he's a superstar, but this doesn't give him the right to do that.”

“He's so aggressive, you can really see he's the most aggressive rider, no one else rides like this. You can do this but in my eyes it's not really sportsmanlike. Sam Gaze (the World Champion in the discipline, ed.) is also an aggressive rider but today he was the strongest. This is the way you win races. He really deserves it."