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Evie Richards battled her way to fifth in the Olympics women’s mountain bike race as French favourite Pauline Ferrand-Prevot romped to a dominant gold.
Richards, the 2021 world champion, came strong towards the end of the 31km race – seven laps of a largely gravel circuit around Elancourt Hill southwest of Paris city centre – to finish 25 seconds off the podium places.
It was two spots better than the 27-year-old managed in Tokyo three years ago, and all the more special given she has fought back from a concussion suffered in April in order to be at Paris 2024.
“I think seeing as I was in bed with a concussion seven weeks ago fifth was great, I’m super happy,” Richards said. “It was so fast, so hot, so noisy I couldn’t even think. Even now it’s so much adrenalin but I had a clear plan and I delivered that.”
On the largely gravel circuit criticised by Tom Pidcock as “bland” ahead of his defence of his men’s Olympic title on Monday, Richards dropped back to ninth place in the early going as Ferrand-Prevot’s pace blew the race to pieces.
France’s Loana Lecomte, in contention for bronze, suffered concussion in a nasty crash while Puck Pieterse dropped back from second after a puncture, finishing fourth, but Richards kept her cool and gradually came through the field with the podium places tantalisingly close
“I wanted to finish strong, to finish with a smile on my face,” she said. “I didn’t want to be flagging at the end and I wanted to show people how hard I can push when I attack.
“I raced a World Cup, my first one back, five weeks ago and I was 30th…I didn’t think I’d ever go from 30th to fifth in five weeks so I’m happy with that today.”
Five-time world champion Ferrand-Prevot, who has built her season around this race in her final year in mountain biking, was riding a different race, turning an early attack into a solo demonstration. She won by two minutes and 57 seconds from American Haley Batten with Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds third.
The 32-year-old Ferrand-Prevot, who rides alongside Pidcock for the Ineos Grenadiers’ mountain-biking division, has won world titles on her mountain bike, the road, in cyclo-cross and on gravel, but had not previously been able to deliver at an Olympics. On French soil, this was the medal she craved.
“I’ve worked so hard for today,” she said. “And I wanted to go full gas… I felt amazing today. I can’t believe it. I thought ‘it’s not possible, it’s not possible, it’s not me, it’s a dream.’ And I was just so happy to see my parents after the finish line.”
Ferrand-Prevot was serenaded by huge crowds at the finish in scenes which UCI president David Lappartient said justified the decision to construct this course, whatever its faults may be, close to the city, rather than hold the event in the Alps.
“It’s really amazing,” Lappartient said. “Everybody in the venue, it’s magnificent, that’s great, that’s what we wanted to have. We wanted for the French version to have the mountain biking here.
“There were options in the Alps but if wanted to share it with the Olympic family it had to be in Paris. That’s great and I’m sure tomorrow (in the men’s race) we will also see something very great.”
Britain’s 19-year-old Ella Maclean-Howell finished 23rd on her Olympic debut.
“It’s just so incredible,” she said. “The crowd is insane, there’s so many Brits here shouting me on, it’s just an incredible atmosphere. It felt like a home Olympics for me.
“I didn’t really go in with a plan, I just wanted to go in there, give it my all and finish empty and I did that.”
