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She’s simply turn into the Olympic champion after years of making an attempt however even a gold medal received’t change Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s thoughts about retiring from mountain bike racing.
Victorious in Paris on Sunday, the house victory marks the start of the top for that space of her profession.
“I needed to organize for this Olympics, however in my head I additionally wanted to know what was occurring after,” the 32 yr outdated Frenchwoman informed the media after her historic gold medal.
“I wanted to be free in my head and never be pondering ‘ought to I proceed or not?’ So this winter I took the choice to cease MTB.”
Ferrand-Prévot has spent a lot of her profession racing throughout a lot of disciplines, taking world titles in highway, cyclo-cross, gravel and mountainbike.
She was world highway race champion in 2014 and likewise received Flèche Wallonne the identical yr, however spent an rising period of time specializing in off-road competitors in recent times. That’s now going to vary.
“It doesn’t matter the results of at this time,” she mentioned. “Successful or not, I might have stopped anyway. As a result of I don’t see myself doing this once more, like coaching for the Olympics once more. It doesn’t make sense to me.
“I made a decision to stop MTB and can return to the highway. Will probably be official, I feel, the second week of August, what staff I’ll be a part of. However we have now already a pleasant challenge and I can be completely happy to organize for the Tour de France and to attempt to win the Tour de France subsequent season.”
Vive la France!
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has added a particular title to her assortment: OLYMPIC CHAMPION #Paris2024 #Biking #MountainBike pic.twitter.com/HAyN9XXz5A
— UCI MTB (@UCI_MTB) July 28, 2024
A Canyon-SRAM rider between 2017 and 2020, she was a part of Absolute-Absalon/BMC in 2021 and 2022, then was backed by Ineos Grenadiers the previous two seasons.
Successful Olympic gold was a serious challenge after missed out on medals within the Video games in London, Rio and Tokyo. Her fourth try was profitable on Sunday, with the event of racing on residence soil seeing her take the lead early on and to end nicely clear of the remainder of the sector.
She mentioned that she was utterly within the zone throughout the occasion, one thing which paid off in spades.
“I used to be working with a psychological coach since a number of months in the past. I used to be simply pondering of myself and never in regards to the others,” she defined.
“I used to be simply doing my very own race, having my very own sample. I used to be like a robotic. I didn’t hear anybody on the course. I heard the nationwide coach, however even my dad and mom I didn’t actually hear them. I used to be simply on a mission.
“It was about going full fuel on the uphill and making an attempt to get better on the downhill. I simply targeted on that, on doing my very own sample, my very own race. I didn’t actually care about what was occurring behind me.”
Ferrand-Prévot finally completed 2:57 forward of the American Haley Batten, with the Swedish rider Jenny Rissveds an extra 5 seconds again in third.
It was a dominant win for the Frenchwoman, who was approach above the extent of her rivals.
“I’ve labored so arduous for at this time. And I needed to go full fuel… I felt wonderful at this time. I can’t imagine it!” she mentioned. “I assumed ‘it’s not potential, it’s not potential, it’s not me, it’s a dream.’ And I used to be simply so completely happy to see my dad and mom after the end line.
“My coach mentioned yesterday, ‘Pauline has to take this race like a standard race’. So I mentioned ‘okay, I’ll do as if I used to be in a UCI World Cup.’ I needed to remain within the wheels… after which push arduous and make them endure. I felt fairly sturdy and went my very own tempo.”
Reaching her massive profession aim will take a while to sink in, however there is no such thing as a threat of her basking in that achievement for too lengthy.
The weeks forward will carry extra readability about with whom she can be racing in 2025 and with the Tour de France Femmes a clearly-defined goal, the gifted rider from Reims will apply the identical self-discipline and work ethic in the direction of additionally making that dream an attainable one.
L’picture du jour : la Marseillaise pour Pauline Ferrand-Prévot , extrêmement émue sur le podium
Suivez l’intégralité des Jeux de #Paris2024 sur Eurosport by way of Max #HomeOfTheOlympics pic.twitter.com/WxtKyVr9Qn
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) July 28, 2024
