Loana Lecomte wins teh elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Loana Lecomte and Laura Stigger after the elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Stigger finishes second at the elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
France's Pauline Ferrand Prevot finishes third at the elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
France's Pauline Ferrand Prevot during the elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Loana Lecomte wins the elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Loana Lecomte wins the elite women's cross country MTB Paris Olympic Test Event at Elancourt Hill in Elancourt west of Paris on September 24 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Loana Lecomte (France) soloed to victory during the elite women's mountain bike cross-country race that served as the Olympic MTB Test Event held at Elancourt, west of Paris.
Lecomte won the race, finishing 39 seconds ahead of runner-up Laura Stigger (Austria) and 56 seconds ahead of world champion and compatriot Pauline Ferrand-Prevot.
"My building up continues," wrote Ferrand-Prevot in a post on social media. "It was nice to experience racing on the Olympic track. I put my 100% of everything at Worlds, and now I’m just 'going with the flow'. My flow is not always flowing (can we say that?), but I’m happy to take another bronze after Andorra and Les Gets World Cups. More than this result, I’m super happy to have learned so many things from these last three days, and quite excited to start working on those things."
Alessandra Keller (Switzerland) was in contention for the victory, however, a flat tire bumped her out of the running in the final stages of the race and finished 30th.
Many of the riders lined up at the Olympic MTB Test Event outside of Paris so that they could get to know the circuit, which included a 2.2km starting loop and then the main 4.5km circuit.
Finishing further down among the top 10 were Haley Batten (USA), Sina Frei (Switzerland), Anne Terpstra (Netherlands), Jenny Risveds (Sweden), Evie Richards (Great Britain), Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), and Jennifer Jackson (Canada).
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
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