"I really like Thibaut Pinot" ... Jacquelin, biathlete with a cycling heart

• Emilien Jacquelin is the latest revelation of French biathlon.
• With two podiums, he was one of the best French at the end of 2019.
• Jacquelin is distinguished by a certain panache, the heritage of his passion for cycling.

On December 14, on the pursuit of Hochfilzen, Emilien Jacquelin realized his dream. Not so much by scratching this first podium in the World Cup as by the way he went to seek third place, by letting go of Fak and Desthieux in the last climb like a cyclist. "On the climb, he tells us, in my head I think of the hours spent watching the Tour de France", the peak of his childhood holidays spent with grandparents in Vendée, where the summer heat forced him and his brothers, to remain cloistered between four walls.

Clement, the youngest brother and rifleman, says: “We were watching the Tour all together. But to tell you how much he loves cycling, I can tell you that Emilien knows the 1998 Tour cassette by heart. He watched it I don't know how many times! With the Jacquelins, the bicycle is sacred. The father pedaled, the grandfather almost made a career with the pros and the great-grandfather was pistard. Emilien also tried it without success in the club before focusing on biathlon. Clément, always: “He was summoned for cycling selections but each time he fell ill and could not go. He often says that the bike did not want him, but it is clear that he had the skills to do so. "

The famous cassette - https://www.picclickimg.com/

If he had cycled, he would probably have liked to fly up the alpine passes like this funny guy who won every time he watched the famous VHS of 98.

“Well, he ended up being caught by doping but I liked the way of running of Marco Pantani, his panache. Today, I really like Thibaut Pinot or Vincenzo Nibali, by their way of running the old way, less in the calculation. I thought to myself that whatever sport I run in, this is how I would do it. To attack. "

Six seconds for five balls, Lucky Luke Jacquelin

We understand better the beginnings of the guy on the world circuit: king of the first intermediate times, he tended to disappear from the radars after the first lap. Vincent Vittoz, coach of the French biathlon team, comments: “He tended to leave very quickly because he has a muscle mass which allows him to do so. But over time it weakened. The interested party explains it as much by a desire to put on a show as a physiological and psychological need to quickly get into his shopping. It's the same for his shooting. Analysis of Brother Jacquelin: “There are only six seconds between his first and the last ball. He only has a little preparation time before, he conditions himself, he creates this link with the target. But after that it leaves very quickly ». Sometimes too much, as often on his last shots standing on sprints.

“We had a discussion after the sprint in Grand-Bornand. I told him, about his standing shot, that when he saw him arrive on the shooting range, it seemed like he had a huge boost of energy that he had to channel either by letting his talent go express fully, as he knows how to do. Or else, it must come back to something more methodological. But when it is in between, it doesn't work. "

Except that the calculation, very little for instinctive runners. Our Thibaut Pinot on skis may well have realized the importance of managing his strength, he will probably never be Martin Fourcade in his approach to racing. He doesn't have the mind anyway. His is unstable as is often the case with sports esthetes. Vincent Vittoz: “Emilien is excessive in both directions. When all is well, he can be very playful and have a positive influence on the group. But sometimes he begins to doubt a few things. "

"The panache is good, but it goes for three minutes"

Clément will say that he is "very easily influenced" by external elements, that he feeds on it, for good or bad, taking for example the first top 5 in career at Antholz (2018) of the brother, animated by pain to have lost his grandfather the day before the sprint, paradoxically the race format that he likes the least. “He likes races where there is confrontation, details the rifleman. Like the pursuit and the mass-start ", conducive to attacks and other spectacular scenarios allowing him to dream on his skis ahead of the race on the peaks of the Tour.

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If he likes to catch fire on the snow, Emilien Jacquelin remains lucid off piste. “The objectives have not changed. Two relay podiums and two indiv 'podiums, if we can continue this momentum, that's fine. "Vincent Vittoz has bigger plans for his foal, which he says has crossed a big milestone physically in the 2019 offseason." He has everything to succeed in a great career, podiums, medals, podiums of the general . He has a modern attack, speed. His big challenge will be to gain consistency to aspire to aim high in the general classification. When we see the evolution he has had for two years, we see that he has understood that the panache is good, but it's going to be three minutes. After all, even the most daring do not always attack. Not even Nibali or Pinot.

• Sport
• Biathlon
• Cycling
• Ski
• Thibaut Pinot
• Vincenzo Nibali
• Cycling