Loana Lecomte Withdraws From XC World Championships with Illness

 Seams kinda weird that after the age of 23 you can become Pro?

 Nothing special was done on her account. U23's must race in their age group for the World Championships. World Cup Series Races are a whole different deal.

 Literally ...

 literally

 so "M ****" is for Merde

 

 Luckily they can't do what Edgar Wright did in Scott Pilgrim's movie. For now...

 She chose to censure the word.

 because ... ?

 I'm glad someone else wrote it. But yeah....

 we all know what you mean, but if you make an accusation, I would like to hear you say it out loud. Say it!

 Ill say it, and I agree. What did she have to prove in the U23 race? It is kind of like when people say the worst pro team should play the best college team. THERE IS NOTHING TO BE GAINED FOR THE PRO TEAM. If she won, everyone would have said "well duh" and if she lost it would be a huge story of "what has happened??" especially after a 6th at the Olympics. (which is a fantastic results she should be super proud of, but when you have led almost every lap of the XCO series, I think a lot of people thought she would dominate Tokyo as well)

 @eroc43: Tokio was way too technical for her, adding the rain and we got what we've got.

A lot of accusations out there, i really hope they arent true, not for the individual, but for the sport, if she is on something, it is definitely something new and very powerful, and she wont be the only one, a lot of people are going to start jumpin, and to be fair Road cycling already had its time under the spotlight for these "problems" but mountain biking hasnt, so it kinda make sense MTB is next.

 @Narro2: well I guess I should have known what Here was referring to. I do not have any reason to believe she is "on something" I was just saying she was sitting out the race because the U23 is not worth her time. She has already won it, I think most know she would win it this year if she is even 95% healthy. I was more thinking it was a "number 1 salute" to the UCI. "wont let me race elites? fine I wont race at all"

 @Narro2: Given cycling's recent history with doping, its hard not to consider it. As I've watched the races this year with Loana calmly cruising along looking like an easy pedal down a bike path as she puts minutes into the rest of the world who are falling apart buried deep in the pain cave, I keep thinking of how much it reminds me of Lance, Froome, Contador, etc. It just looks superhuman to see one person on such a different level. I hate that I'm so jaded and it's honestly kind of ruined watching the women's Elites this year for me. I really hope she's simply hit the sweet spot in her training and progression as a rider, the form she was showing prior to the Olympics was nuts.

 @Catch22: I hope that we are wrong. Because her performance was/is legendary.

 this.

 Merdement merdique, indeed.

 no you have still 25h and 10 min left (at the time of this comment)