Pauline Ferrand Prévot Wins a Second Rainbow Jersey at the Marathon World Championships
Just three weeks after winning the XCO World Championships in Mont Sainte Anne, Pauline Ferrand Prévot has added a second Rainbow Jersey to her collection at the Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships last weekend in Grächen, Switzerland.
While XCO races normally last between one hour and twenty minutes to one hour and forty minutes and take place on a course between 4 and 6km long, Marathon races can be held over 60 to 160km courses and last much longer. The women's course in Grachen was 70km long and featured 3,500 metres of climbing.
Ferrand Prévot set off in the lead group at had a lead by the 14km mark in the race. Pauline's winning time was 3:57:09, with silver medallist Blaža Pintarič 1:53 behind and Robyn de Groot taking the bronze in a sprint 2:40 down.
 | It was very fast at the start. So I knew I had to make a gap on the downhill so I went full gas. I’m really, really happy! |
The men had to contend with a 94km course featuring almost 4,200m of climbing. The race featured many XCO pros including Cink and Flückiger but they faded before the line and Colombia’s Héctor Leonardo Páez León took the win in a time of 4:17:58.
| It was really technical so I started to prepare for this at the beginning of the season. It’s very hard to describe how I feel because it’s a long time I’ve been trying to win this jersey. Now I am the World Champion. Thank you everybody!” |
XC Marathon World Championship Results
Women
1. Pauline Ferrand Prévot - 3:57:09
2. Blaža Pintarič +1:53
3. Robyn de Groot +2:40
1. Pauline Ferrand Prévot - 3:57:09
2. Blaža Pintarič +1:53
3. Robyn de Groot +2:40
Men
1. Héctor Leonardo Páez León - 4:17:58
2. Kristian Hynek +0:26
3. Samuele Porro +1:13
1. Héctor Leonardo Páez León - 4:17:58
2. Kristian Hynek +0:26
3. Samuele Porro +1:13
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Personally I love these kind of events. I'm not competitive at all and even though I never enjoyed riding XC multi-lap races, I loved riding marathon. Not necessarily because of the length (you can always stop for a picknick of course) but because there are no laps you don't have these stupid overtake-moves that widen and destroy the trails. And of course you're actually going places, which is nice. At most events you have different distances and sometimes you can even choose while on course, so this really is a race format that can be fun for nearly everyone.
Obviously I have my rose-tinted goggles stuck to my face and competition at the front of the pack must be fierce. Four hours racing at that level is impressive. And Hector for the mens, that's almost 22km/h average. Imagine, that's like riding a regular e-mtb near its engine-cut-off limit for over four hours straight! Not trying to start another e-bike war here (so don't you dare...), just to put it in perspective. Congrats to the medalists!
Pinkbike: I do realize that covering these long distance races is much more difficult than lap races or short (stage) races. But I do think events like these are cool and probably make for some epic pictures too. I would definitely appreciate the effort! Obviously thanks for all that you're doing already.
Personally, I would like to see everyone race the same courses, be it road, mtn, etc. because I don’t think that women should be given less of a task than men. If there is an issue of “it would take longer” or any excuse based on women being less physically capable, I would think it is if nothing else a chance for women’s categories to progress instead of being told “we don’t think your body can handle what a male’s can, so we’re not going to give your gender the chance to try.”
It feels like someone saying, “we don’t think you’re physiologically able to be company President, but you can be Vice President. Let’s pretend that’s the same thing. You’ve worked just as hard, your experience and education is the same, but you’re a woman so... VP.”
But I would like to discuss this, because I could be totally wrong. I would like to hear people’s opinions and learn how I might be over looking something.
Actually as the distance increases the women's field should exceed the men's field since physiologically they're more adaptable to extreme endurance.
Damn, just imagine the cycling super-being those two could produce.
Bon travail Pauline, bon travail.
She has way more than just two rainbow jerseys