• Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt and Loana Lecomte represent two good medal chances this Tuesday in mountain biking at the Tokyo Olympics.

  • The first, with a track record as long as an arm, has been preparing for a long time to win the only title it lacks.

  • She also wants to erase the memory of Rio, where she had the most painful experience of her career.

From our special correspondent in Tokyo,

A speech that oozes revenge and, above all, the lessons of the most painful experience of his athletic life. Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt arrived in Japan with one idea in mind: to erase the memory of Rio on Tuesday, where she had completely missed out. With her triple crown of world champion (road in 2014, cross country and mountain bike in 2015) but diminished by many pips, she had "exploded in flight", in the words of the DTN of the time Vincent Jacquet. Twenty-sixth in the road race and forced to quit the mountain bike a few days later, she left in tears, in an advanced state of depression. “The bike was what I liked the most, but it became my biggest nightmare,” she said a few days later.

Five years later, and fortunately, the diagnosis was made.

"It's in the defeats that we learn the most, and it is sure that I learned a lot in this one," remarks the Rémoise, handling understatement.

She, whose great strength lay in her versatility, made choices.

No more road and cyclo-cross, everything for mountain biking, “the discipline that I really like the most”, she assumes today.

“The atmosphere, the race format, everything it brings to me on a daily basis… It's the one in which I take the most pleasure.

"

The emergence of a (another) big favorite… French

Another lesson, "put everything in place to be 100% on D-Day". On purpose, it has therefore focused the last two years on this one Olympic goal, and here it is initially pumped up. “I arrive neither injured nor sick, reassured about my state of form. It's a first victory in itself, she says, echoing her doubts before the flight to Brazil. These Olympics are my ultimate goal, the only title missing from my record. This is the one I want the most. "

On this way to Tokyo, PFP also had to fight against this almost irrepressible desire to win everything. We had to learn to approach certain races as stages rather than ends in themselves. And even give up arguing with others. “It's not easy to run into dead ends because sometimes you would like to reassure yourself about your state of form by winning a race, so that you can tell yourself that you are not training for nothing,” she explains. You have to be convinced that the work will pay off, that requires a great deal of self-confidence. It's hard but I'm getting there, thanks to my experience. "

It also helps him not to think too much about the rise of a great rival, undoubtedly her biggest in Tokyo… who happens to be her teammate, Loana Lecomte. Because nature abhors a vacuum, and while the 2019 and 2020 world champion let go of the ramp a little to focus on the Games, the young Haut-Savoyarde took the opportunity to tumble like a comet among the big boys. World hopeful champion last year, she has been competing since the start of the season with four wins in as many World Cup races contested.

Not even 22 years old, Lecomte gives off an impression of maddening ease.

Here she is propelled big favorite for the title, in any case by Ferrand-Prévôt, perhaps not unhappy either to unload some of the pressure on other shoulders than his own.

"As in every race, we reset the counters to zero", sweeps the youngest, as imperturbable in front of the camera as on her bike.

Each for itself?

Behind this little game, the question is above all whether a team race is possible within a team made up of world numbers 1 and 2.

PFP replied in the affirmative.

“For my part, we are not going to shoot each other.

It's in our best interest to get along well, to run together if possible rather than rolling over each other, ”she says.

To see all the same what it will give in the heat of the moment, if one has to resolve to let the other go so as not to bring the pack back when she feels the canes to do so.

Our dossier on the Tokyo Olympics

Publicly, the staff remains neutral.

The only goal is to "bring back the medal of the most beautiful color", according to the DTN Christophe Manin.

“Anyway, we saw it this year, Loana is above the rest.

She does what she wants on the bike, so not sure she needs me to win, ”adds Ferrand-Prévôt.

Words that can sound like a renunciation.

Honestly, we advise you not to rely on it.

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  • Tokyo Olympics 2021

  • Olympic Games

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  • Mountain biking

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