Mountain biking returns to the Olympic Games for an eighth consecutive time, with the cross-nation medals determined on the Élancourt Hill venue exterior Paris for elite ladies on Saturday, July 28, a day earlier than the lads.
A forecast of rain may change the complexity of the course for the ladies prefer it did three years in the past on the Tokyo Games, which left a lot of the favourites effectively behind a Swiss podium sweep led by Jolanda Neff.
The ladies’s race is extensive open this outing as Neff not too long ago withdrew attributable to a lingering sickness, leaving Alessandra Keller as the one Swiss rider this time. Keller will likely be one of many favourites, as she is the chief within the UCI World Cup XCO rankings by the primary six races.
Her high competitors will come from a pair of French riders, world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and world’s silver medalist Loana Lecomte in addition to Dutch rider Puck Pieterse and the US duo of Haley Batten and Savilia Blunk.
There are 36 riders on the beginning record for Saturday, which is similar quantity for males on Sunday. In the inaugural look of XCO within the Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta, there have been 27 ladies within the race versus 38 males. Paola Pezzo of Italy gained the primary ladies’s gold medal, with a second victory 4 years later in Sydney, she stays the one two-time Olympic XCO winner.
The races will happen at Élancourt Hill on a 4.4km course that features twisting gravel paths, a technical rock backyard and a difficult climb. After a gap lap of two.2km, which avoids the one main climb, there will likely be a number of passes on the principle circuit, with 110 metres of elevation achieve every time. The highest level of the course presents views within the distance of the Eiffel Tower, which is positioned about 25km away.
Paris Olympics ladies’s mountain bike favourites
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Loana Lecomte (France)
France may simply land each riders, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Loana Lecomte, on the house podium, and both may take the gold. The two rocketed throughout final 12 months’s Glasgow World Championships XCO course to go one-two, Ferrand-Prévot incomes rainbow stripes for a fifth time in MTB. She additionally has world titles throughout a number of biking disciplines in her storied profession – cyclocross, gravel, highway and marathon mountain bike.
This is Ferrand-Prévot’s ultimate season competing in mountain biking, as she’s going to flip her focus again to highway racing. She completed tenth in Tokyo within the XCO race, however the driving motivation this time at her fourth Games is to be “Olympic champion at residence”. She has solely competed at two World Cup occasions this 12 months, Nové Město and Val De Sole, however gained each occasions.
Lecomte has a single victory on the World Cup circuit this 12 months at Crans-Montana, and skipped the Les Gets spherical in early July for a coaching camp within the mountains. She was a dominate winner final 12 months on the mountain bike Test Event at Élancourt Hill, Ferrand-Prévot ending third.
With her silver medal behind Ferrand-Prévot on the World Championships, Lecomte has proved she will carry out effectively on the massive stage, giving France choices for the gold.
Puck Pieterse (Netherlands)
Puck Pieterse is a rising star throughout a number of disciplines in biking, together with a previous U23 world champion in cyclocross and the reigning European champion in cross-nation MTB at simply 22 years of age. She is ranked second within the World Cup standings of XCO, boosted by her win within the ultimate tune-up for the Olympic Games in Les Gets, France, the place she excelled on climbs and thru the mud to sail away with a solo victory greater than two minutes forward of chasers.
She had two years remaining to race on the U23 stage in MTB, however determined to maneuver to the elite stage final 12 months together with her sights set on Paris, and it paid dividends. At the World Championships final 12 months she earned the bronze behind the French duo of Ferrand-Prévot and Lecomte. She appears to be like to be the primary ladies’s rider from The Netherlands to earn a medal of any color on the Olympic Games in mountain biking.
Haley Batten and Savilia Blunk (USA)
Similar to the house French workforce, Team USA brings double firepower to the cross-nation with Haley Batten and Savilia Blunk, ranked third and fourth, respectively within the World Cup rankings. Batten makes her second Olympic look, ending ninth in Tokyo, whereas Blunk makes her debut.
Batten has three podiums this World Cup season, together with a victory at Araxá, Brazil. Blunk gained the brief observe race in Les Gets, and has three podiums in cross-nation.
It has been 12 years for the reason that US has come away with a bronze medal on the Olympic Games in mountain biking, and each Batten and Blunk want to make historical past with a primary-time gold.
Alessandra Keller (Switzerland)
Born the identical 12 months that mountain biking made its entry into the Olympic Games, Alessandra Keller involves Paris because the UCI World Cup chief in cross-nation. She gained the ladies’s U23 world championship in 2018, and has completed fifth the final two years at Worlds within the elite race.
While she leads the World Cup rankings this season attributable to consistency – three World Series podiums and three high 10s – she doesn’t have a victory on the lengthy programs but, solely taking a pair of victories within the brief observe competitions. With Neff out of the race now, she should profit from her solo endeavour.
When is the Paris Olympics ladies’s mountain bike cross nation?
The ladies’s race begins on July 28 at 14:10 CET or 8:10 EDT. Find out tips on how to watch biking on the Paris Olympics
Women’s MTB Start List
- Rebecca Henderson (Australia)
- Mona Mitterwallner (Austria)
- Laura Stigger (Austria)
- Emeline Detilleux (Belgium)
- Raiza Goulao Henrique (Brazil)
- Isabella Holmgren (Canada)
- Adela Holubova (Czechia)
- Caroline Bohe (Denmark)
- Sofie Heby Pedersen (Denmark)
- Janika Loiv (Estonia)
- Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France)
- Loana Lecomte (France)
- Nina Benz (Germany)
- Ella Maclean-Howell (Great Britain)
- Evie Richards (Great Britain)
- Blanka Vas (Hungary)
- Martina Berta (Italy)
- Chiara Teocchi (Italy)
- Urara Kawaguchi (Japan)
- Aurelie Halbwachs (Mauritius)
- Erika Monserrath Rodriguez Suarez (Mexico)
- Puck Pieterse (Netherlands)
- Anne Terpstra (Netherlands)
- Samara Maxwell (New Zealand)
- Zhifan Wu (China)
- Paula Gorycka (Poland)
- Raquel Queiros (Portugal)
- Jazilla Mwamikazi (Rwanda)
- Tanja Zakelj (Slovenia)
- Candice Lill (South Africa)
- Jenny Rissveds (Sweden)
- Alessandra Keller (Switzerland)
- Sina Frei (Switzerland)
- Yana Belomoina (Ukraine)
- Haley Batten (United States)
- Savilia Blunk (United States)