- Pro-cyclist Tom Pidcock has made headlines over the weekend for his amazingly fast 5K times.
- Runners have been questioning the validity of Pidcock's time, after he completed 5K in a staggering 13:25.
21-year-old Tom Pidcock is best known for his achievements in the saddle, having competed in cyclo-cross, mountain bike, road and track cycling disciplines, racking up numerous wins and titles across all of them. Yet Pidcock has been in the running news this weekend, after clocking a staggeringly fast 5K time on Friday.
Pidcock revealed he went out to try and run a sub-15 minute 5K, but according to his Garmin Forerunner 935, he ran a 13:25 effort. For context, this is only slightly slower than the flagging Pidcocks Strava entry, which currently stands at 13:20, run by Marc Scott last August. The time is also just 50 seconds off the world record of 12:35, held by Joshua Cheptegei.
Sharing his news on Instagram, Pidcock wrote, 'This morning I went out to try break the 15 min 5k, I did a 13.25. Apparently this is very quick 😂 think I’m going to try again in a few days to validate this. Maybe running is the sport for me 🤔'
Runners unfortunate mistake costs him 1st place, flagging Pidcock's Strava entry and commenting on his Instagram upload. One runner wrote, 'Please, send your GPS device for repair'. Another runner added, 'No chance you ran a 13:25, that videos not even close to a 4 min/mile pace'.
Others were more congratulatory in tone, one writing 'Dude, that is absolutely mental fast!'. Australian cyclist and INEOS team mate Rohan Dennis commented, 'Imagine if you drank coffee 😜'.
Another speedy runner in the pro peloton is Mike Woods (who ran a sub 4 minute mile in his youth). He offered up some insight into this seemingly amazing run on twitter -
