“All the lights are green” for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot before the Worlds

Despite a start to the seasonshy“, the triple mountain bike world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot estimated Thursday that “all the lights (were) greento go and conquer a fourth coronation on Sunday during the cross-country of the Worlds in Les Gets (Haute-Savoie). “I made a rather shy start to the season because I also wanted to save myself for the end of the season. We know that it’s the freshness that will play (…) I would say that all the lights are green for this weekend“, explained Ferrand-Prévot Thursday during a press conference with the France team.

The Champenoise climbed on her first international podium of the year last week by being second in the European Championships in Germany. She was in the lead at a third of the race, but saw victory elude her in favor of another Frenchwoman, Loana Lecomte, after a mechanical incident. “I didn’t take it as a disappointment at all. This competition served as a springboard for me to arrive at the 200% World Championships. This reassured me about my state of form“, she added.

“We had to digest the Games (she finished tenth in Tokyo, editor’s note) and work on my weak pointsSaid Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to explain her difficult start to the season. This summer, she completed a three-week altitude training course in Font-Romeu (Pyrénées-Orientales) to prepare for the Worlds. “I based my whole season on this weekend“, she clarified. “PFP», 30 years old, can claim a fourth world cross-country title on Sunday. She would then equal the record of the Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå (2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006). To get there, she will this time have to win against Loana Lecomte, great hope of French mountain biking, also on the start line in Les Gets.