Cycling Worlds: French double in cross-country mountain biking, with gold for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and silver for Loana Lecomte



The two French women assumed their status as favorites and crushed the race on Saturday at Glentress Forest (Scotland).

One year from the 2024 Olympics, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Loana Lecomte are sending a strong message to the competition. Missed out on their Olympic Games in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, the French will once again be the big favorites for Olympic gold, and recalled why on Saturday August 12, at the Glasgow Worlds. On the Glentress Forest track, in the south of Scotland, the two French drivers left the competition no chance, escaping very early in this cross-country.

Impatient to start after her coronation in short track on Thursday, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot blasted the race from the second lap, printing a hell of a train. Quickly lonely at the front, the Rémoise finished first with an incredible lead of 1'14, after 1h24 of racing and 28 km. Behind, Loana Lecomte, although outdistanced by her compatriot, also made a demonstration to get silver, finishing 13 seconds ahead of Puck Pieterse, in bronze.
The showdown between the French stars and the young Dutch bombshell Puck Pieterse, reigning European champion, therefore came to an end. At the end of the third lap, 12 km, the three main rivals of the Bleues were already relegated to more than a minute from the Champenoise, who was driving alone on her planet. In front of an incredulous public, and almost disappointed with the turn of the race, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot delivered a recital, two days after her coronation in short track.

Auspicious before the Games
Holder of the title and already crowned four times in cross-country mountain biking (2015, 2019, 2020, 2022), the flagship and Olympic race of the discipline, the Frenchwoman won her fifteenth world title, all disciplines combined, she who has already shone on road, cyclo-cross and gravel. If she skipped the MTB Marathon this year (in which she was also the title holder), "PFP" thus ends her Worlds with two titles in as many races.

For Loana Lecomte, the record is two silver medals in as many starts, she who was part of the mixed relay team, on the podium on Wednesday. The young tricolor (24) was never able to hang on to her compatriot's wheel, after starting hostilities and taking the lead on the first lap. But like her teammate, Loana Lecomte offered herself the luxury of never feeling the breath of her pursuers in her neck.
On another planet, the two French stars of the discipline have thus signed a resounding double, indisputable and full of promise one year from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. After the zeros scored in Rio and Tokyo, everything seems to be in place for Pauline Ferrand- Prévot set the record straight on July 28, 2024, on the hill of Elancourt, in the Yvelines. A race that the Tricolores will approach as champion and vice-champion of the world.