• Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Loana Lecomte, big favorites for the gold medal, sank in Tokyo for different reasons.

  • The closest to winning was Ferrand-Prévot, who suffered a crippling fall and puncture at this level.

  • The Frenchwoman and her Swiss opponent, Olympic champion, do not have the same version of the incident that opposed them.

From our special correspondent in Tokyo,

Note for in three years in Paris.

No longer rely on world rankings before ticking the medals, this one-for-sure-it falls into our little provisional calendar.

Thus, Loana Lecomte and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, world numbers 1 and 2 in mountain biking, did not see the tail of a podium, with a different appreciation of the race of each.

For Lecomte, who had crushed all the competitions this winter, a new world has given way under his feet.

🚵♀ Pauline Ferrand-Prévot falls and wastes time.

The French left behind at the head of the race.

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“I'm already happy to be there, to have participated, and I have no regrets, admits the young woman of 21 years.

It's the Olympics, we knew it was going to be a different race from a World Cup.

It starts very, very quickly, there are girls that we don't necessarily see in front of them who go ahead and are full, so there you go, it's a one-day race.

She continues:

I gained experience, I learned a lot of things, and we meet again in 2024. "

For FPF, it is something else.

The Frenchwoman had fiery legs, she said it herself afterwards: “I came back to my best level, even a level that I have never had.

“Nothing to do with Rio 2016, when she had to give up in tears after a year rotten by physical problems and a personal breakup abundantly commented on.

After a piano start, on a course changed from top to bottom because of the buckets of water fallen since the night before, PFP had taken the lead in front of Jolanda Neff, until a high turn after a steep rock.

"With Jolanda, it's always a bit chaotic"

So wheel to wheel with Switzerland, the French brakes a little hard and gives up all her illusions of victory by wasting a lot of time to get her bike back and switch on the ignition. Explanations by the person concerned: “She took a left, I took a right and there you have it. I thought to myself if she doesn't brake and if I don't brake, we both hit each other and I don't know where we end up. So I braked and slipped off the front wheel. I had to go back down the stone wall to get my bike, so it wasn't necessarily a great fun time. With Jolanda, it's always a bit chaotic. "

As if to say that the future Olympic champion had not played it straight away. Funny, when we know that the latter literally dismantled PFP in a press conference behind. Take your breath, it's long: “Just before this place where she fell, there was a big jump, twenty seconds before. We approached it, it was in front of me, and we were going at a good speed. And all of a sudden, a meter before the jump, she braked really hard to get over the hump [a downhill wooden bridge], and I couldn't do anything at all. I had gained speed to jump, and not at all to ride on it. I'm really lucky I didn't fall, it was a stupid gesture on her part because it's really dangerous. I don't know why she did that or if she knew I was right behind, but after thatI said to myself “OK, I have to get away from her because she is running in a dangerous way, you never know what she is doing”. So on the next road, I chose the left because it was on the right. It is not the first time that she has made such moves. I don't know why she fell, but I'm just happy to have been on the other side, and to have been able to continue my race in safety ”.

"A collective has succeeded, it is called the Swiss team"

We warned you, it was long.

In short.

This questionable race fact on both sides did not prevent Ferrand-Prévot from sending the sauce in the second lap, to the point of dropping the two other Swiss women chasing behind their compatriot.

That's when a flat tire ruined his podium plans for good.

“I had moved again to get this medal but I had a puncture at the end of the circuit, I had to do all the descents and climbs with the wheel punctured, it was a bit of a hassle.

I left far away.

" She adds :

I thought ten times about giving up, then I told myself that I was not allowed to give up because it's the Games and I was in very good shape. I got up before the race and said to myself “it's already a victory because you can't do anything better” ”.

Yvan Clolus, the coach, is still looking. “What is important to note is that there is a successful collective called the Swiss team. We will have to use it. Here we have two coaches, two athletes, we have chosen to work separately so that each can be in his bubble, in his routines, take his time. Not being in the comparison, like “me, I can do it, you can't do it”, we separated things. " Between the lines ? PFP and Lecomte, who also get along rather well, have too different profiles (one very technical, the other very physical) to agree in the race. "We spent time this week, and we definitely managed to finish building this team, but while we were doing that, we did not do anything else."

Like, for example, recognizing the circuit by bike for the last time on Tuesday morning, when the route, several obstacles and certain trajectories were no longer the same?

Jolanda, decidedly very lively, pointed out that she had taken the trouble with her two companions to take a bike tour to record everything: “Other teams [including France] preferred to do it only on foot.

We took the bike to note all the differences.

But it's not just a question of what has changed, you also have to be able to master the new circuit and adapt quickly.

“It almost looks like a new tackle for Ferrand-Prévot and the Bleues or we do not know it.

Sport

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