The French Pauline Ferrand Prevot has been proclaimed world champion of mountain bike, in the cross-country modality, which has further enlarged her record that already includes eleven world titles, including one road, and five golds, with that of this Saturday, of the "long" discipline of this sport.
Ferrnad Prevot was the big favorite for the title in Glasgow and for most of the race she proved to be at a much higher level than the other competitors; she went wrong, yes, and during the first lap of the circuit, of seven, she left her compatriot Loana Lacomte to have the feeling of going first.
But as was to be expected, in the second round, the favorite overtook her teammate, although France was very good at that situation, because Lacomte's initial pull surprised other favorites and left her with a margin enough not to be overwhelmed for the rest of the race and get the silver medal.
Thus, the test had no emotion since before reaching the middle, with Ferrand Prevot installed in half a minute ahead of Lacomte already in the third lap of the circuit and three riders fighting for bronze already another half minute away.
In the second half of the race, attention was focused on those three, the Dutch Puck Pieterse, the Swiss Alexandra Keller -second in the world ranking- and the Austrian Mona Mitterwallner.
With two laps to go, with the first two very well established in their times and without making any mistakes, it was the Swiss rider who fell behind, and the bronze became a fight between the Dutch and the Austrian.
That medal was not resolved until the last meters, due to a mistake in a turn by Mitterwallner that left his rival an important margin to reach the finish line third.
In the end Freeand Prevot added his second gold in Glasgow -after the short test- with a time of 1.24:14 and 1:14 ahead of his compatriot Loana Lacomte, with whom he melted into a hug as soon as she crossed the goal.
The bronze went to the Dutch Puck Pieterse, who came 1:27 behind the winner, while the Austrian Mitterwallner finished fourth at 1:31.
The rest of the runners arrived more than two minutes behind the winner, which illustrates the strong pace she set, which even led to the tenth finisher (the North American Savilia Blunk) entering five minutes behind the first.
The Spanish runners were victims of this strong rhythm and Rocío del Alba Martínez, who started in 44th place, had a good race but finished in 34th position, 10:07 behind the winner; while Nuria Bosch completed three laps less than the winner and finished among the last classified.
