Less than four weeks after his Tour de France crowned with his success at Alpe d'Huez, the Leeds phenomenon has found the mountain bike trails as if he had never left them.
The Dane Sebastian Fini Carstensen and the Swiss Filippo Colombo complete this podium.
Frenchman Victor Koretzky placed fourth.
Even without having competed in cross-country for three months and starting from afar (bib 36), the Ineos runner flew away alone in the fifth lap (out of eight) without the competition being able to respond.
Of course, the best in the world were absent, whether it was the Swiss legend Nino Schurter, nine times world champion and 2016 Olympic champion, the Frenchman Titouan Carod or the Romanian Vlad Dascalu.
And the only one capable of worrying him, the Swiss Olympic vice-champion Mathias Flückiger did not start after the announcement overnight that he had tested positive for an anabolic.
At 23, Pidcock covets an unprecedented treble: the world title in three disciplines and the same year.
He has already validated the first third of his bet by being crowned in cyclo-cross in January.
© 2022 AFP