The men’s cross-country cycling (mountain biking) event took place recently and it looked like an absolutely grueling sufferfest. The event had riders compete in 7 laps across a 4.1km track with 150m in elevation change.
The event took the winner, Tom Pidcock, 1:25:14 to complete, and perhaps the more remarkable story is that Pidcock started the race in the 4th row. He overtook 26 riders in the start loop alone, and ended up securing the gold with an extremely impressive performance.
Watching the five-minute highlight video just makes me tired. How are these athletes physically able to ride like this? I legitimately feel like it shouldn’t be humanly possible.