Pauline Ferrand-Prévot defends her Cross-Country short track World Championship title

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot kicked off her 2023 edition of the Cross-Country Mountain Bike World Championships perfectly. Just like last year in Les Gets, the Frenchwoman became world champion in the short track on Thursday evening in Scotland.

Her big attack on the last lap allowed her to make the difference on her opponents, and in particular on the Dutch Puck Pieterse and the Briton Evie Richards, the two women who climbed with her on the podium. "At the moment, I know that I am setting power records over 5 seconds, so I know that I have an explosive start," she told L'Équipe.

Recovering from her knee injury contracted on July 2 during the Val di Sole World Cup round, the 31-year-old Ferrand-Prévot was therefore able to win an eighth individual world title in mountain biking... before a ninth Saturday at the occasion of the XCO?

"It's a title of world champion, but if I'm asked to choose a race, without lying, I'll choose the one on Saturday," she explains, the Olympic cross-country being the queen event of mountain biking. "It gives a boost. I wanted to win this title by saving myself for Saturday because it will be really hard," concludes Ferrand-Prévot.