The wait continues for NZ's first Olympic medal after Sam Gaze finished 6th and another medal-less campaign for the eventing team. Video / Chereè Kinnear
By Kris Shannon in Paris
A “horrible, terrible, not good enough” start has condemned Sam Gaze to sixth place in the men’s mountain bike cross-country race on Elancourt Hill.
The Commonwealth champion was left heartbroken after once more suffering misfortune at the Olympic level, having failed to finish at Rio 2016 following repeated mechanical issues.
Eight years later — after missing selection for Tokyo — Gaze was on this occasion able to recover from losing a lottery in the opening metres of the race. But on a difficult course in searing heat, he didn’t have the legs to complete a comeback.
Gaze trailed by 19 seconds after the first of eight laps, stuck in 16th as defending champion Tom Pidcock started to stretch the field. The Kiwi gradually worked his way inside the top 10, and after Pidcock sustained a puncture on the fourth lap, a minor medal seemed within reach.
But as the Brit unleashed a lightning-quick revival and rode back to the front of the field, Gaze found himself unable to follow.
Pidcock would eventually take gold amid a chorus of boos from home fans — upset with the favourite’s final-lap attack that cut off French silver medallist Victor Koretzky — while Gaze was forced to settle for sixth, 1m 30s off bronze.
“I’m quite heartbroken but I did absolutely everything I could,” said Gaze. “At one point I believed a medal was still in reach after my horrible start — it was a terrible, not good enough start.
“But then when I tried to follow [Pidcock] back to [bronze medallist] Alan Hatherly, that was it. I knew I didn’t have it then. That was the moment it was lost.
“What brought me to my knees was not being able to ride the tempo I needed to come back to Alan, and then what killed me was when Pidcock got away.”
Sam Gaze in action during the men's mountain bike cross-country. Photo / Photosport
With Pidcock and Koretzky setting a rapid pace from the opening lap, Gaze expended too much energy making up ground on a flat and fast course. More hills would have better suited the 28-year-old — as would a different layout in the initial stages of the circuit.
“I just got squeezed,” he said. “It was quite a tricky start with inverted banking — it was just asking for mishaps. You can get really lucky but it was a bit of a raffle and I drew the short straw.
“But I’ve been in that situation a couple of times now where I’ve had an unfortunate start and had to come back, and I believed. I tried to come back as quick as I could, but the start was just ridiculously fast.
“It was super aggressive and punchy, and to be doing that for two or three laps is one thing; to be doing it after an hour and 15 is another thing altogether. A very hard course and I wish I had better legs.”
Gaze could pinpoint nothing in his preparation to explain why he felt short of his physical peak, left to rue his poor luck at this level.
After leading from start to finish two years ago in Birmingham for his second Commonwealth Games gold — a race won in the absence of the versatile Pidcock, busy with professional road commitments — Gaze had hoped this would be his Olympic breakthrough.
“Today was just wanting to complete the circle of it — I had big ambitions,” Gaze said. “One day I’ll have to be happy about it. Obviously it’s not what I came here for.”
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