Izu (Japan) (AFP)

Loana Lecomte and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot fell from a great height on Tuesday: big favorites in the Olympic mountain biking event, they both sank and witnessed the historic triumph of the Swiss, who took the three places on the podium.

When the two French women crossed the finish line, in 6th (Lecomte) and 10th positions (Ferrand-Prévot), the Olympic champion Jolanda Neff and her runners-up Sina Frei and Linda Indergand had already had time for a long time to give themselves a long hug and pose arm in arm for photographers.

Lecomte, who had outrageously dominated the first part of the season at 21, handily winning four out of four World Cup rounds, simply had no legs.

Ferrand-Prévot suffered a fall in the first round which caused him to lose contact with the future Olympic champion.

"PFP" was in the lead, neck and neck with Jolanda Neff, when she slipped on a rocky relaunch: "she took a left, I took a right, we were going at the same speed and we arrived at the same time, I said to myself + if it doesn't brake, if I don't brake, we hit each other +, so I braked. I slipped forward, "said the Frenchwoman.

"Very clearly, the title was played there. After, I do not know if I would have beaten it, but in any case the medal was played there", estimated "PFP".

- Paris-2024 objective -

Lecomte, left behind in the first round, was never in a position to fight for a medal.

But she says her 6th place is "not really a disappointment".

“I couldn't do better today,” she admitted, “I had dominated all four World Cup rounds, but with my young age maybe I used up some energy with the stress of being there ".

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who at the age of 29 has already won all the major cycling titles (world champion on road, mountain biking and cyclo-cross) with the exception of the Olympic title, also believes that the result of her young teammate "is not a failure".

# photo1

"She's learning, she's been at the highest level for a year. She's a tall girl, and she's going to get very tall, but you have to go through that to be at the best in Paris in 2024," she said. , while announcing that she would herself again be a candidate for a gold medal in mountain biking at the Games in the French capital.

As a symbol, the Olympic champion Jolanda Neff did exactly what Lecomte had gotten used to doing this season on the World Cup heats: she took the lead alone from the first kilometers, gradually widened the gap until having a relatively comfortable margin of one minute on his pursuers, before managing his lead.

The 28-year-old Swiss has long been part of the world's elite: world champion in MTB marathon in 2016, then cross-country and relay the following year, she also has four European champion titles to her credit. .

© 2021 AFP