Pidcock believes returning to his mountain bike roots inspired Munich glory

Tom Pidcock reckons returning to his mountain bike roots has provided the perfect platform for completing an unprecedented cycling hat-trick after grabbing more major glory in Munich. The Olympic mountain bike champion added the European title to his rapidly-growing collection after soaring to a stunning Stage 12 triumph at the Tour de France last month. Ad The Leeds star, 23, competes in road, mountain and cyclo-cross events and kicked his year off by winning Cyclo-cross World Championship gold in Arkansas.

Cycling'Stay safe and stay in a good position on GC' — Hayter on Ineos strategy2 HOURS AGO The mountain and road events are next on his jam-packed calendar and Pidcock says the escapism of his favourite discipline this week can help fire him to a treble. Pidcock, who beat Denmark's Sebastian Fini Carstensen and Swiss star Filippo Colombo to gold, said: «Mountain biking is what I enjoy doing and gives me a mental break from the road. »As much as I enjoy the road, it's much more high-pressured and a more high-performance environment.

«This gets me away and means I enjoy riding my bike — and that's one of the big reasons I do mountain bike. »It's a good nice fun atmosphere — it's more of a relaxed sport than road racing. «I know that I can still just drop into mountain bike and still be able to win if I prepare properly.

»My three biggest goals this year were the three World Championships. «The hardest one to win is the first one — there are still a couple more to go so I'm not finished yet.» Pidcock recovered from an early crash on Friday's 34.9km route to plough through the field and claim a dominant victory by 11 seconds. He now travels to France for the Mountain Bike World Championships next week bidding to claim