The day of glory has arrived for Jordan Sarrou.
At 27, the Auvergnat won his first mountain bike world champion title this Saturday on the demanding course of Leogang in the Austrian Alps.
Starting very early in a day where no error was allowed in the muddy and slippery trails near Salzburg, Jordan Sarrou long had more than a minute ahead of a group of four pursuers including another French, Titouan Carod , distinguished himself by taking the bronze medal after having been in the race for second place for a long time.
By beating the Swiss Matthias Flückingern, already vice-world champion in 2019, by 45 seconds, Jordan Sarrou will wear the discipline's rainbow jersey for the first time, after having already been titled in the mixed relay four times ( 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020).
“The plan was to start quickly.
I rode at my own pace and was very focused on my race.
I can not believe it, I am in a dream, I am the world champion! ”Exulted the Frenchman in comments reported by
AFP.
He succeeds Julien Absalon (Olympic champion in the discipline in 2004 and then in 2008), five-time world champion in cross-country.
WORLD CHAMPION @jordansarrou secures France's third gold medal of the day!
# Leogang2020pic.twitter.com / oHrpZPFwxu
- UCI MTB (@UCI_MTB) October 10, 2020
The women had shown the way
The Marseillaise dedicated to Jordan Sarrou will not have been the only one to be played this Saturday since two other titles went to two other tricolors.
In this case two women.
Loana Lecomte, a great hope in French mountain biking, won the hopeful race alone with a 1'11 "lead over her closest pursuer, the Hungarian Kata Blanka Vas. Later, no less easily, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (28 years old ) managed to keep her title of world cross-country champion by more than three minutes ahead of her two pursuers: the Italian Eva Lechner and the Austrian Rebecca Mc Connell. "I started from the start and I tried to widen the gap as much as possible to prevent it from coming back behind in the event of a fall or a mechanical problem. I felt good and I gave the maximum ", admitted" PFP "to the
AFP
at the after the race, a gap that allowed him to quickly kill any suspense and leave for a year with the iridescent jersey.
Titled for the third time in cross-country (2015, 2019, 2020), the Rémoise, also titled on the road in 2014, shows its pretensions for the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in the same way as its younger brother Loana Lecomte, aged 21 years old, and who had beaten her two weeks ago during Nove Mesto's round in the Senior World Cup.
Jordan Sarrou
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot
Loana Lecomte
Three RAINBOW jerseys .. in ONE day!
# Leogang2020pic.twitter.com / DCCGVYgz1W
- UCI MTB (@UCI_MTB) October 10, 2020
Read also
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot wins a new mountain bike world title
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