Arrived with great ambition, the French team started the Track Cycling Worlds upside down with the early elimination of the speed and pursuit teams, Wednesday evening in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
A year ago in Roubaix, Timmy Gillion, Sébastien Vigier and Rayan Helal opened the World Championships with a fine silver medal in team sprint.
They wanted to do at least as well this year on a track where the goal of their lives will take place in less than two years: the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The French chasers had also finished in silver in 2021 and also cultivated big ambitions, like the whole team, after the successful European Championships in August with fifteen medals, including six gold.
But nothing went as planned for the two tricolor collectives, eliminated from the medal race.
After controlled qualifications, the trio of speed came up against Germany in the quarter-finals in a frustrating duel that was biased by the false start of the German starter.
When it stalled, Timmy Gillion, who started in the lead for the Blues, did not hear the firecracker that interrupted the race.
He kept pushing hard, almost half a lap, before he slowed down.
So much wasted energy that the French paid dearly for the second start against the Germans who were playing for the bronze medal against the British, while the final pitted Australia against the Netherlands on Wednesday evening.
"
It's a game-changer.
I was a starter, it happened to me myself not to hear the firecracker and when you have to leave quickly behind it is almost a lost race
, "commented Grégory Baugé, quadruple world champion who became national coach of the sprint.
A few minutes later, the pursuers completely fell apart in their duel against Italy's Filippo Ganna, the new hour record holder.
If France has already been Olympic champion, in 1996 in Atlanta, it continues to chase the world title in this event.
A real blow, while the president of the French Cycling Federation (FFC) Michel Callot again recalled after the opening ceremony that he was waiting for “
results and that we are starting to show the color, in particular in the Olympic disciplines
” with a view to 2024. “
This first day leaves a bitter taste.
We obviously hoped for better.
These are the World Championships, we are at home, there was their family, the French public.
We are disappointed
“, summed up Grégory Baugé.
On the other hand, he appreciated the performance of the French women who failed at the same stage of the competition as the men in team sprint, but beating their own record, in the face of formidable competition, in particular that of Germany which improved its own world record in 45''893 over the 750m in the first round of competition.
"
It's really encouraging for the future
," he said.
