"It was my life's goal" - 4th Olympics lucky for sensational Pauline Ferrand-Prevot in women's mountain bike

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has pretty much done it all in women's mountain bike over the course of her legendary career in the sport. All that was missing was an Olympic gold medal and on Sunday afternoon, the Frenchwoman finally succeeded, in front of her compatriots in Paris no less.

Attacking hard relatively early on, looking to put immediate pressure on her rivals, the 32-year-old was already 30 seconds clear by the end of the second lap. With that time gap only extending over the remainder of the race, Ferrand-Prevot eventually finished up with an advantage over just under three minutes from USA's Haley Batten who took silver ahead of Sweden's Jenny Rissveds, as a late puncture saw Dutchwoman Puck Pieterse drop from clear 2nd to 4th at the line.

"It's hard to say how much I feel about this," Ferrand-Prévot told Eurosport in an emotional post-race interview. "I've prepared so well for today. Not just the last few months, but this is the result of years and years of hard work. It's my fourth Olympics and I've never performed well. Today everything fell into place with the gold medal. It was my life's goal and I won it. Unbelievable."

“The races I rode this year were good training for this day. Today I raced the same as all the World Cups," she continues. "I had no stress, I rode my own race. Full throttle when it went up, but calmer on the descents and there I had to try to recover. I had a mission and what I did in the World Cups is paying off now. Of course it's a great feeling when you can push the pedals so hard and suffer hard.”

Throughout the race, there was immense support for the iconic figure in French women's cycling, with the crowd repeatedly breaking out into chants of "Pauline, Pauline, Pauline!" After Ferrand-Prevot crossed the line, those in attendance even broke out into an impromptu rendition of La Marseillaise to serenade their hero. "During the race I didn't hear any of that, I was so focused that I rode my own race. Afterwards it was really beautiful to see," concluded a thankful Ferrand-Prevot.