The Paris Olympic Video games get underway this weekend with the ladies’s and males’s Mountain Bike Cross-country occasions happening on a former landfill. The highest rivals had been blended of their evaluation of the Elancourt Hill course after their coaching runs this week, noting the free gravel and totally man-made course differs from what impressed mountain biking as a sport.
Former Olympic champion Nino Schurter (Switzerland) voiced a unanimous evaluation of the course.
“It is slippery, it is fairly free and fairly broad. In case you go quick it is tremendous slippery,” Schurter mentioned. “I hope the gravel nonetheless goes a bit to the aspect and makes it much less free all over the place. You possibly can really feel there was no mountain biking earlier than and it is 100% man-made, like we noticed in London and in Rio. It may very well be a bit extra pure, however usually, it is good.”
The highest Dutch hopeful Puck Pieterse already did a full preview of the course final yr forward of the take a look at occasion, so she knew what to anticipate but additionally famous the dry nature of the circuit will drive riders to be comfy with a bit of drift within the turns.
“It is good. Final yr, we already had the possibility to familiarise with the course and race right here. They’ve made some small changes, however for the primary half it is the identical,” Pieterse mentioned. “There’s quite a lot of gravel, which is slippery, particularly within the corners, so you need to watch out.
“It is a course wherein you might have to have the ability to take quite a lot of velocity into the corners and also you should not be afraid to float a bit of on the slippery floor.
“The technical elements come shortly after one another however it’s not such a protracted lap and there is no lengthy three- to four-minute climb as a result of all climbs are interrupted with little issues,” she mentioned, including, “It’s a must to be good on any course.”
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Pieterse anticipated Pauline Ferrand Prévot to be the highest contender on her dwelling turf. “It is in her dwelling nation, she’s the highest favorite, so that may put the strain on, however it will probably additionally give her wings. We’ll discover out on Sunday. I really feel as if I did all the things I might, so that offers me quite a lot of confidence.”
The British riders Tom Pidcock – one of many prime males’s Olympic MTB favourites as defending champion – and Evie Richards weren’t as bullish concerning the course, with Pidcock giving fairly a blunt evaluation.
“It isn’t the most effective course on the earth however it’s the identical for everybody,” Pidcock mentioned. “It is bland and I believe they might have performed a greater job of creating a extra mountain bike course.
“I like mountain biking for the explanations that drive us to take pleasure in it. That is the programs you get to experience, the locations you get to go to. If you simply gravel over a pleasant hillside, it is not likely mountain biking.”
Pidcock and Richards agreed that the course is much less tactical than those they encounter in the course of the season.
“There’s not a lot pondering to enter both. It is type of one line you simply go down,” Pidcock mentioned.
“There’s only one line. Usually you may select totally different traces,” Richards mentioned earlier than including, “It is nonetheless technical as a result of they have a lot of cool options, drops and jumps, however it’s man-made. It is only one line, and also you race that line. It is most likely simpler to study, however simply much less decisions once you come to race.
“I believe they’ve performed the most effective they’ve performed. Being as shut as Paris, it is not the best factor to only pop up a mountain bike course wherever. If I used to be a designer, I might like much more pure options moderately than man-made.
“However I believe we usually see that on the Olympic Video games, it is usually a little bit of a unique course than what we would usually race at World Cups. We’re usually within the Alps, someplace, someplace in a pleasant ski resort and that is tremendous near town centre. I believe they’ve performed the most effective job of what they’ll do.”
Uninteresting course apart, Richards is worked up to symbolize Britain on the Olympic Video games.
“The Olympics is all I ever dreamt of and that is why I obtained into sport. For the reason that age of six, it was all I needed to do. Not only for me, however for my household, for my grandparents, it is what we have all ever dreamt of. It isn’t simply my dream, it is all my household’s dream come true. They will all be popping out to look at. Nothing feels fairly like representing your nation, particularly on the Video games.”
Puck Pieterse’s course preview
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