Pauline Ferrand-Prevot Finally Wins Olympic Mountain Bike Gold For France

Elancourt, France — Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, a French mountain cyclist, has two tattoos: the Olympic rings under her left wrist and the phrase “Life is a joke” on the back of her neck, which seemed entirely suitable on Sunday.

After over a decade of striving, she finally got the Olympic gold medal she had always desired. The rings on Ferrand-Prevot’s wrist flashed in front of an adoring, sun-soaked audience who refused to stop serenading her at the finish line. What’s the phrase on her neck? The joke was on everyone else in the mountain bike race.

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot Finally Wins Olympic Mountain Bike Gold For France

She drew away early and was never seen again, finishing 2 minutes and 57 seconds ahead of everyone else.

It seemed like an eternity.

“I was just thinking about myself and not the others and riding my race,” Ferrand-Prevot told reporters. “I felt like a robot. I did not hear from anyone on the course. I didn’t hear my parents. “I was just on a mission.”

Haley Batten passed Rio gold medallist Jenny Rissveds on the final lap, giving the United States its best finish in an Olympic mountain biking race. Rissveds won an emotional bronze medal after spending two years away from the sport to focus on her mental health.

“I visualised finishing with the medal around my neck for a long time,” says Batten, “so I knew I’d feel something special, but I can’t explain how amazing that is.”

Loana Lecomte, the other French favorite, was third halfway through the race when she encountered a stretch known as a rock garden. She slid over the handlebars in a devastating collision and crashed among the pebbles, ending her Olympic ambition. Medics examined her but later attended Ferrand-Prevot’s press conference wearing a bandage on her chin.

There was also misery for Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands, who was in second place until a flat tire forced her to change wheels. The nearly 30 seconds she lost robbed her of the opportunity to reach the Olympic podium. She finished fourth.

After Americans won bronze medals in 1996 and 2012, Batten had a chance to win silver.

“I’m one of the top athletes in the world, and I know I’m the best I’ve ever been,” Batten explained. “So for me, the preparation has been in the details. Building steadily year after year, one step at a time.”

The race was held on a custom-built course designed by South African expert Nick Floros, who also produced the mountain bike courses for the Rio and Tokyo Games. It was fashioned out of a woodland setting at Elancourt Hill, which was once a sandstone quarry in the 1800s before becoming a landfill until 1975 when a regeneration effort transformed it into a popular park.

It was filled with French fans waving their flags and hammering the barricades on Sunday whenever Ferrand-Prevot came by.

She has been attempting to follow in the footsteps of Julie Bresset, who won mountain biking gold for France at the 2012 London Games. However, after finishing 25th in that race, Ferrand-Prevot crashed badly in Rio and did not finish, and she could only finish 10th in the rain at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games.

Those disappointments tormented the 32-year-old from Reims, who has announced that she would leave mountain biking to focus on her road career. Ferrand-Prevot won two World Cups as tune-ups earlier this year, and she came into the Paris Games full of confidence.

She wasted no time getting to the front, pulling away from the pack on the second lap after a sequence of tough climbs. By the end of circuit 2, she had opened up a 29-second lead over Pieterse and Lecomte, which had extended to a full minute — an incredible distance so early in an Olympic race — by the time she completed her third circuit.

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot Finally Wins Olympic Mountain Bike Gold For France

At this time, the only drama was determining who would join Ferrand-Prevot on the podium.

Lecomte’s crash relieved Pieterse of pressure, but her flat tire opened the race for several other riders. That group was quickly reduced to Batten and Rissveds, who switched medal positions numerous times during their race to the finish line.

“I put my whole heart and soul into today’s race,” said Batten, fortunate to have a punctured tire next to her mechanic, allowing her to repair it swiftly and remain in the race. “I felt something wonderful inside of me today. My legs never hurt for some reason. I don’t know. “I just wanted it so badly.”

SOURCE | AP