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In full preparation since June for the biathlon season, Quentin Fillon-Maillet made a detour on Saturday by the Tour de France passing through his Jura lands.
An unmissable meeting for the five-time Olympic medalist (including two gold medals) since the stage between Dole and Lausanne, in Switzerland, crossed Saint-Laurent-en-Grandvaux, his village, but also Champagnole, his place of birth.
It was alongside Christian Prudhomme, in the race director's car, that he plunged into the heart of an event that rocked his youth
“
The Tour de France is first and foremost family memories in front of the TV.
I didn't really understand what was going on at the time, but I remember well the passage of the caravan and the runners in front of my house one year.
We had set up a small stand as the runners passed.
I had been marked by the fervor of the public
", confides the Jurassian, who has approached several runners in recent years: Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, David Gaudu, Guillaume Martin, Alexis Vuillermoz or even Benoît Cosnefroy with whom he s sometimes results.
I'm not a roller, that's for sure, maybe a bit of a sprinter, even a puncher, but I like the climbs.
Quentin Fillon Maillet
"
They are good guys first, and then what they do is really impressive: a three-week effort with very little rest, six hours of cycling a day, in changing conditions, rain, heat … But this sport also generates a bit of frustration because alongside pure performance, you sometimes have to deal with falls or mechanical problems, punctures
”, adds the champion who defines himself, behind the handlebars, as a climber.
“
I'm not a roller, that's for sure, maybe a bit of a sprinter, even a puncher, but I like the climbs.
»
If he would not trade his skis and his rifle for a bicycle, Fillon-Maillet distinguishes several similarities between these two sports.
“
Even if the effort is not quite similar to what you find in cross-country skiing, the approach to performance is in certain aspects quite similar.
Cycling is very advanced in many areas and I like to compare my experiences with cyclists, especially concerning the mental approach, nutrition, physical preparation
", explains the 29-year-old athlete who, if he likes teasing the pedal, can't see himself trying his luck in the race, for the moment anyway.
"
Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to compete too much because the effort is much longer on a bike and it's not the type of effort and training that I'm going to be looking for
, "concludes the athlete with 16 World Cup victories who will have to wait until the end of November to smell the scent of competition on his skis and with his rifle.
The mythical climbs of the Tour de France
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