No time to think about it. Almost a month after the Olympic Games in Tokyo, concluded without any medals, the French mountain biking team is once again meeting for the world championships (from August 24 to 29), in Val di Sole (Italy). The opportunity for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Jordan Sarrou to quickly dive back into the deep end, Saturday, August 28, to defend their respective world crowns in the premier event, the cross-country. The third nugget of tricolor mountain biking, Loana Lecomte, ill, will not be able to defend his title among the hopes.
Three-time cross-country mountain bike world champion (2015, 2019 and 2020), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot arrives with confidence on an event she knows and or she could equal the record of the Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle. His bronze medal on the short-track (a new short-distance event) played on Thursday and his victory at the European Championships in Novi Sad (Serbia), on August 15, proved that the legs were turning well. “I am in a good dynamic after my European title, she admits. I am quite serene. It is true that there is a little pressure to defend my title for the third year, but it is positive. “” I feel good, the form is present. I am really motivated to defend my title ”, assures his side Jordan Sarrou, who will find neither Mathieu van der Poel nor the Olympic champion, Thomas Pidcock, on his way.
Getting back up after a disappointing Olympics
However, the two French mountain bikers come out of a zone of turbulence. The Olympic Games did not at all live up to expectations, whether theirs, those of the public, observers or the federation. Respectively first and second in the world before the Games, Loana Lecomte and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot could not do better than 6e and 10e.
“I wasn’t too lucky when I felt great, I couldn’t express myself as I wanted. It kind of collapsed the day before the race, because it started to rain, she says. They changed the circuit, the conditions were really different. I got it into my head that it was hot and dry, it unsettled me a bit. ” In the race, nothing went as planned: Ferrand-Prévot fell on a rocky slope as she struggled with the future Swiss Olympic champion, Jolanda Neff, then suffered a puncture while climbing up the standings. “It bothers me, because I had this in mind for five years, confides the Rémoise. I am not disappointed. It wasn’t what I was looking for, but it’s not a poor performance. “
In contrary to his compatriot, who was living his third Olympic Games, Jordan Sarrou, 29, discovered the high mass of sport. He was not spared either. A fall during the reconnaissance of the course two days before the race particularly weakened him. The knee swollen, an arm that he can no longer lift: the conditions are not optimal, and the native of Saint-Etienne must be satisfied with a 9e place, behind the other Frenchman, Victor Koretzky, 5e. “I have good memories of it despite the result, where I hoped for better, Sarrou admits. There is bound to be disappointment, but no regrets. ”
“There is no point in burying ourselves with words that can hurt”
It was therefore necessary to manage the post-Games and the comments around the disappointment of the France team, return without charms. On an Instagram post, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot did not hide her anger on the evening of her second European title. “Always prove to certain journalists who write / speak without knowing that they are big c ***!” “, she wrote. A few days later, PFP clarified: “I did not appreciate the articles of certain journalists whom I trusted. They disappointed me, in the fact that it’s still sport, it’s still a one-day race. There is no point in burying ourselves with words that can hurt. “
The French Cycling Federation was also in the sights of tricolor mountain bikers when the national technical director (DTN), Christophe Manin, mentioned a ” failure “. “When he said that, I told him ‘you can’t break athletes like that’, relates the 2014 world road champion. I’m not necessarily happy with the attitude they had towards us. “” I found it a shame of him to have this speech, Sarrou continues. The DTN is more there to support us than to bring us down. “
European coronation for Ferrand-Prévot, dead end for Sarrou
Especially since the post-Olympic period is never easy to digest. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot knows this better than anyone, she who wanted to stop everything in 2016 after her abandonment in Rio. “I know that the post-Games are always a bit hard, if you don’t get back to it quickly, you never get back to it. ” After Tokyo, she quickly turned to Novi Sad, where she brilliantly retained her European title. Jordan Sarrou, for his part, preferred to ignore it, before returning to the path of competition in Basel (Switzerland) on Sunday, signing a 3e square. “After the Games, I took a few days off. I needed to recover physically and mentally. It was important to do something other than cycling. “
Body and mind regenerated, French mountain bikers can now turn to the second part of the year. “The Games are behind me”, assures Jordan Sarrou. “A season does not end at the Olympic Games”, continues Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The world championships in Val di Sole are timely for the French team to demonstrate that it remains a great mountain biking nation. With three titles already obtained since the beginning of the week, including a double in the junior women, France has started the Worlds perfectly. But two results will really count, those of the elites, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Jordan Sarrou, who will fight to keep their rainbow jersey.