Cooper a gallant sixth in MTB race

New Zealand’s Anton Cooper finished in sixth place in the gruelling men’s mountain bike cross country race at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 26-year-old from Woodend, was in the hunt for a medal for most of the race but, didn’t have the legs over the final lap to pick up a medal.

Gold was won by Britain’s Tom Pidcock, with Mathias Flueckiger from Switzerland picking up the silver and Spain’s David Valero Serrano getting the bronze.

Cooper showed great stamina to stay among the leaders around seven laps of the treacherous course, where there wasn’t any time for the riders to catch their breath and wasn’t despondent with how the race went and believed he did the best he could.

‘‘I’m not left wondering, because I know I gave it everything, completely empty at the finish line,’’ Cooper told Sky TV.

‘‘But overall I’m pretty stoked. I came in a real outsider, a chance for a medal, I was ranked No 13 coming in.

‘‘There are lot of guys in this field who could medal, could win, so everything was a possibility and I went out with that mentality. I was going to try to be up the front for as long as I can and hope I had the legs at the end.

‘‘I didn’t quite have the legs to stick it on the podium, but certainly emptied the tank, so I’ve got to be satisfied with that.’’

Mathieu van der Poel from the Netherlands was the red-hot favourite to win the race, with Pidcock regarded as the best of the rest.

Van der Poel recently won the second stage at the Tour de France and got to where the yellow jersey.

Pidcock, is regarded as one of the up and coming stars of cycling and tipped to be a future grand tour winner.

A group of 10 riders containing all the favourites, including Cooper, got into an early lead, as the also-rans already quickly tailed off.