‘Not what I came for’ – Sam Gaze resets after sixth in Olympic Games mountain bike race

Sam Gaze might have simply delivered New Zealand’s equal finest inserting of sixth within the males’s cross-country mountain bike race on the Olympic Video games however his disappointment on the finish of Monday’s race was clear.

The rider from New Zealand hoped for extra, along with his current outcomes having supplied ample gas for desires of a medal cost. Although a distinct story performed out on Élancourt Hill for the reigning short-track world champion and silver medallist within the 2023 cross-country rainbow jersey race.

A tricky begin and subsequent chase again to the entrance of the race took its toll and Gaze crossed the road three spots shy of the rostrum as Tom Pidcock (Nice Britain), Victor Koretzky (France) and Alan Hatherly (South Africa) swept up the medals he sought.

“It was not what I got here for,” stated Gaze of his sixth place in a media launch from Biking New Zealand. “As soon as I bought pushed again in that first nook, then I used to be happy with how I labored my method again and bought into a terrific place however I simply didn’t have the legs to go along with Pidcock.”

Gaze lined up among the many 36 starters within the second row after which misplaced out within the squeeze for place on the banked gravelly lead into the tighter sections of the eight lap and one hour and 26 minute lengthy race. He was exterior the highest 20 on the first time cut up however simply saved combating his method up the sector till midway by way of the race he was among the many prime 5 as one of many key riders in pursuit of Koretzky and Hatherly out the entrance.

“I’m fairly heartbroken however I did completely every thing I might,” Gaze stated in put up race feedback reported by The New Zealand Herald. “At one level I believed a medal was nonetheless in attain after my horrible begin – it was a horrible, not ok begin.”

That second when a medal appeared inside attain handed when Pidcock – on the cost again to the entrance of the race after a flat – first joined the chase group together with Gaze after which pushed the tempo within the fifth lap. Because the defending champion went out in pursuit, of the South African rider and residential nation favorite, the rider from New Zealand’s effort to remain on Pidcock’s wheel took a toll and Gaze’s medal hopes drifted away.

“After I tried to comply with Pidcock again to Alan Hatherly, that was it. I knew I did not have it then. That was the second I misplaced it,” Gaze stated within the New Zealand Herald report.

Nevertheless, at his second Olympic Video games – having ridden in Rio however lacking out for Tokyo – he saved combating for one of the best end attainable, crossing the road 1:41 behind two-time Olympic gold medallist Pidcock to take sixth, the identical inserting delivered by compatriot Anton Cooper at Tokyo in 2021. 

The consequence might not have been what Gaze had been in search of however he has come a great distance within the eight years since his first Olympic Video games look in Rio as a twenty yr previous – the place he was lapped and completed thirty seventh. Nevertheless, the 28-year-old who additionally rides on the highway for Alpecin-Deceuninck on the highway is hoping he can go additional nonetheless subsequent time.

“Tomorrow I’ll look again and see that was a journey to be happy with,” stated Gaze within the Biking New Zealand media launch. “And I’ve already began excited about the world championships subsequent month and on to Los Angeles in 4 years time.”