Tokyo (AFP)

"It has more value than any title of world champion!"

After a breathless and intelligent race, Benjamin Thomas and Donavan Grondin went to win at the end of their strength on Saturday the bronze of the American in track cycling, allowing France to reach the bar of 30 medals.

"I'm dead. Dead for France!" Laughed Benjamin Thomas, coming to meet the journalists, his face still streaming with sweat.

"We did I don't know how many laps in the lead, we can be proud of the way we ran, because until the end we ran for gold, and we didn't miss much. . "

In front of the young tricolor duo - Thomas is 25 years old and Grondin 20-, the experienced Danish Lasse Hansen and Michael Morkov took the gold medal, and the British Matthew Walls (Olympic champion of the omnium) and Ethan Hayter the silver of this American, a 50 km points race contested by teams of two runners who take turns on the track at will.

"It's an incredible emotion, continued Thomas, it has more value than any title of European champion or world champion. It's above, it's unique. It's going to be an engraved emotion. for life".

The French built their medal in two stages.

They first got off to a thunderous start to win the first two intermediate sprints, and take the lead from the start with 10 points (5 points per victory).

Then, while the Danes and the British had accumulated the points, they managed to escape the peloton to cover more than thirty laps alone in the lead and temporarily take the lead.

Donavan Grondin (d) and Benjamin Thomas, bronze medalists on the American, on the Izu velodrome, August 7, 2021 at the Tokyo Games Peter PARKS AFP

- The sprint at half mast -

Caught 60 laps from the goal, they threw all their strength into a superb final fight to grab point by point.

"It was played on the last sprint. If we had been a little cooler on the last sprint we could have done one or two, but it's already a medal and it's not nothing", welcomed Gurnard, also exhausted.

At 20, the Reunionese was almost a neophyte of major competitions.

He had discovered the world level in 2019, before the pandemic, and won a single victory in the American World Cup in November in Glasgow, already associated with Benjamin Thomas.

The two men took 6th place at the 2020 Worlds in Berlin.

"I still can't imagine that I managed to do that", he said, visibly moved: "It was our dream to win a medal, Benjamin had not succeeded in the omnium two days ago it was a relief for him ".

Sprint side, the day was not so good.

Mathilde Gros was eliminated in the repechage after losing her round of 16, and Sébastien Vigier was knocked out of the keirin tournament in the playoffs.

The last French chances on the track on Sunday, for the last day of the Games, will rest on the shoulders of Rayan Helal, still in the keirin race, and Clara Copponi in omnium.

Mathilde Gros launched by her trainer on the Izu velodrome track, lost her round of 16 on August 7, 2021 Peter PARKS AFP

In the land of keirin, this first day gave an idea of ​​the atmosphere that will reign on Sunday for the finals: Yuta Wakimoto and Yudai Nitta, the two Japanese, won their respective series, to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd and the Cheers from the Japanese Tokyo-2020 volunteers.

© 2021 AFP