Perfection in Paris: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot

After over a decade of chasing Olympic dreams, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot earned gold in the most dominant way possible. The French woman electrified a wildly supportive crowd at her home Games, attacking early on in the women’s mountain bike race to take gold.

Canada’s Isabella Holmgren, making her Olympic debut, rode to an impressive top-20 finish.

Elite women’s XCO: French dreams come home

With the Games returning to France and two pre-race favourites chasing Olympic glory, the women’s XCO had an absolutely electric atmosphere. The Games might have started off dampened by rain, but the sun was shining and the crowd was roaring at Elancourt Hills.

Early on on the first lap, a group of four started to escape. That was led by Austria’s Laura Stigger with Dutch favourite Puck Pieterse and French duo Loana Lecomte and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot both present. That group quickly splintered, with Stigger fading and, with quick attack just over 10 minutes in, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot going solo off the front to drop Pieterse and Lecomte. Lecomte would later crash hard in a man-made rock garden, a heart braking way to end her second Olympic appearance.

Ferrand-Prévot, though, was on the move. The highly decorated French woman has made a habit of attacking early, attacking alone, and not looking back at World Cups this year. Those were, as she has said, just preparation for the big show. As several riders, including South Africa’s Candice Lill, suffered mechanicals, Ferrand-Prévot built on her advantage every single lap of the race. By the penultimate lap, she had a full three-minute buffer over the second place group should any mechanical misfortune strike.

Disaster for Pieterse

Pieterse, who had been leading the chase for second, had less luck. Approaching two laps to go, a flat rear tire saw her caught, then dropped by a chasing group of four before she could reach the tech zone. The Dutch woman would change her tire and chase, but could only make it back to fourth before the finish line.

Behind Ferrand-Prévot, who looked unfazed by the effort as she continued to ride away from the field, a two-way battle formed. Jenny Rissveds, the 2016 Gold medallist in Rio, and the U.S.A.’s Haley Batten were locked into a race for silver. Batten had worked her way back up into the chase group after a flat tire on lap four. Over the final two laps, the Swede and the American tested each other, attacking and pushing the pace. The two went head-to-head at…