La Rémoise retained her title on Thursday at the Glentress Forest track in Scotland.
An alien. Favorite of the cross-country short track mountain bike event, Thursday August 10, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot assumed her status as reigning world champion. Always well placed, the Rémoise knocked out the competition with a single, sharp attack on the last ascent.
Her main rival, the young Dutch nugget Puck Pieterse could not do anything and is content with silver, ahead of the Briton Evie Richards. It is already the fourteenth world title for the 31-year-old runner, the very definition of versatility because it is already sacred on the road, cyclo-cross, cross-country, marathon and gravel mountain biking.
Second act Saturday
“It’s so good! It’s been quite a long day, with this wait for the start when I’ve been up since early this morning. We had never raced on this circuit, so I didn’t know how it was going to be. pass”, admitted the Frenchwoman, barely off her bike and crowned with a new world title. But in this nervous race, punctuated by the battering of her pursuers Eivie Richards and Puck Pieterse, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot never lost her composure before the decisive attack.
“I tried to race smart. I knew it would go very fast and that it was useless to attack three laps from the finish. I waited for the last moment”explained the Frenchwoman, “Right now it’s going pretty well, my attacks are pretty sharp“. Rather, indeed, since the Champenoise only needed a single acceleration in the last ascent to slash what was left of the leading group, and fly away towards the title.
A little earlier, halfway through the race, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot had also been miraculously responsive to avoid the fall, while the Swiss Sina Frei had gone to the ground just in front of her. But the Frenchwoman was on a mission to keep her rainbow and bring home a fourteenth world champion jersey. Even if she admits, in a burst of laughter, “not sure where the other thirteen are stored. What matters are the memories”.
Speaking of memories, a new one has just been added to the precious collection of the Frenchwoman who, before celebrating, was in a hurry to go and do her half-hour recovery. Because on Saturday, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has another title to defend: “I am very happy ! Now, we will have to recover before Saturday, the circuit should be very interesting. And, to choose, it’s the Olympic cross-country that I want to win”. The competition is warned: the Cannibal still has the fangs.