Anterselva (Italy) (AFP)
Little to its advantage since the start of the season, the French biathlon team is gradually emerging from the water and will approach the Pokljuka Worlds (February 10-21) in an ascending form, materialized by the six podiums (including two wins) in six World Cup races from Thursday to Sunday in Anterselva.
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Norway two notches above
The post-Fourcade turns out to be more complicated than hoped for the Blues who suffer hard the law of the Norwegians, victorious in 11 of the 15 individual events contested this winter for men.
The retirement of the five-time Olympic champion has left a great void and for now, it is the Nordiques who are benefiting from it.
Behind the boss Johannes Boe (4 successes), three compatriots follow him in the general classification of the World Cup with the revelation Sturla Holm Laegreid (23 years old), the veteran Tarjei Boe (32 years old) and Johannes Dale (23 years old ).
The French are hanging on to collect the crumbs (7 podiums including one victory for Quentin Fillon-Maillet during the pursuit of Hochfilzen, December 12).
The absence of the Fourcade locomotive, the man who crushed the discipline during the last decade, and a truncated preparation due to the health crisis largely explain this inability to fight on equal terms over time with the Norwegians, forcing the Blues to be satisfied with sporadic blows of brilliance.
Collectively, the French, however, remain a real war machine.
By offering themselves to Oberhof and Anterselva the last two stints before the Worlds, they have marked their territory and will be the favorites to their own succession in Pokljuka (Slovenia).
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Fillon-Maillet got back in the saddle
Promoted leader of the Blues, Quentin Fillon-Maillet seemed to have a hard time putting on the costume long worn by Martin Fourcade.
Penalized by see-saw results, the Frenchman, 3rd overall in 2019 and 2020, even quickly mortgaged his chances in the race for the big crystal globe from January 8, taking 84th place in the Oberhof sprint, drawing a line on his main goal of the season.
But the trend seems to have finally been reversed for Fillon-Maillet, who has just chained two consecutive podiums (3rd in the individual and 2nd in the mass start at Anterselva) and is gaining momentum for the World Championships.
More than a question of mentality and pressure linked to his new status, the 28-year-old Jurassian swears that his poor performance is mainly due to a volume of training a little too sustained during the summer preparation.
“There was way too much investment on my part this summer, he explained. Maybe a little too much, but I wanted to know my limits in training to know if it could make me better. will allow me to better adjust myself for next season and the Olympics. It's frustrating because I can not be in the form of last year, but it is getting better and better. The form is improving and it allows me to express myself fully. "
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Julia Simon, the show's intermittent
The seasons follow each other and are similar for the Blue, unable to compete for the win of the big globe.
Fortunately, there is still Julia Simon, still capable of exploits, like her two fantastic mass start lifts in the space of six days, in Oberhof and Anterselva.
But these two victories, the only ones to put in the balance sheet of the French this season, are too often interspersed with terrible failures and the biathlete of the Saisies (24 years old) remains handicapped by a chronic inconstancy.
A finding that applies to the entire French women's team.
"We lack regularity in shooting, regrets the coach of the Bleues Frédéric Jean. It's frustrating because physically, they have the level to play regularly in front. But they have changed shooting coaches three times in three years and you have to time to assimilate the new working methods. "
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