When you launch yourself at 60 km/h on a bumpy track full of 400 meter turns, neck and neck with seven other drivers, you better know where you put your wheels. A spectacular discipline, BMX racing will take up residence on the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines track during the 2024 Olympic Games (July 26-August 11). “We are lucky to be able to train on the course every day. If I participate in the Olympics, I will arrive knowing it like the back of my hand,” explained French runner Léo Garoyan, in May 2023.
“This Olympic stadium is a workplace”, then added Michel Callot, the president of the French Cycling Federation (FFC), about the track that came out of the ground in 2015. And that is the heart of the problem. For the first time since its entry into the Olympic program in 2008 in Beijing, BMX racing will take place on an already existing site, therefore perfectly known by the competitors. of the host country. “Everyone will agree that it’s unfair, even the French athletes and staff know it,” thus regrets the Dutch driver Dave van der Burg.
The latter is one of the few to talk about it openly. Apart from ephemeral rants in “stories” Instagram of his compatriot Niek Kimmann and the American Connor Fields, the last two Olympic champions, difficult to find a cyclist to say in front of a microphone what everyone has been whispering away from the cameras for months: the Olympic event will not be fair.
By choosing sustainability rather than building a new track, the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) would thus have indirectly favored the Blues, who already dominate the discipline at world level, like their hat-trick at the World Championships in Glasgow (United Kingdom), in May 2023. Criticisms anticipated by Paris 2024, which therefore carried out work in February to “ remodel and restyle » the site, as far as possible. In fact, it was impossible to destroy the three elevated bends: the French company commissioned was only able to raze the bumpy straight lines, made of aggregates of earth, limestone and a compact sandy coating, and modify the entrances to the bends.
“The route remains the same”
“ The track has been completely revamped, not a single jump has remained the same as on the old one. The builders have done a good job and with the time remaining they can create a great track for the Gamesappreciates Dave van der Burg, who has just spent three days there with the Dutch delegation. But the layout remains the same, because the turns are the same, as are the racing lines. »
You have 51.34% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.