MTB Worlds: Ferrand-Prévot takes elite XCO title in front of home crowd
Olympic Champion Neff second for Switzerland and Batten third for US














On Sunday, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot joined Norway's Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja as the only women to have won four Elite XCO world titles. She did in front of an appreciative home crowd in Les Gets, France, with a dominant performance at the 2022 the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
Jolanda Neff (Switzerland) took the silver, 1:35 back, while Haley Batten (USA) finished another 38 seconds later and secured the bronze.
Ferrand-Prévot made no secret of the fact that winning the world title in France was her number one priority for the season, skipping the two North American rounds of the World Cup to focus on training.
It paid off, with the French rider, who recently won the European title, riding away from the rest of the field on the first lap. She had 30 seconds on a chase group by the end of the opening circuit, 1:35 over second place by the finish and 10th place was more than five minutes down at the end. Less than half the field finished the race on the same lap; rarely is such dominance seen at the world championships.
The race was behind for second, with Batten, Loana Lecomte (France) and Alessandra Keller (Switzerland) initially battling for the remaining medals. Lecomte was dropped after the second lap, with Batten and Keller left in the chasing positions.
However, Olympic Champion Neff surged mid-race to join the duo by lap 4, and then attacked a lap later. Batten was able to follow initially before dropping back to third. Neff made little headway on Ferrand-Prévot, but was able to hold on to second for the silver medal, with Batten taking third.
"Right now I feel exhausted, but it is incredible," said Ferrand-Prévot. "I made the choice to go with a hardtail bike because I knew that I could go faster on the climbs. It was a bit risky, but I wanted to go straight from the start, to go full gas and try to make a gap, and I did it. After that, I just had to be soft and clean on the downhills.
"Right now it feels like a dream and I can't believe it. But I want to see my parents and my friends. After that, I think I will know."
Results powered by FirstCycling
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
'Democratization of the sport on the African continent' – Expanding online training to provide opportunities for 1,000 rising cyclists
Team Africa Rising spearheads 'Virtual Performance Centres' as means of amplifying road cycling growth after Kigali Road World Championships -
Paul Magnier does it again at Tour of Guangxi, launching to a second sprint victory on stage 2
Pavel Bittner takes second place after Magnier jumps from his wheel to claim a clear cut win -
Sofie van Rooijen jumps from Elisa Balsamo's wheel to claim victory at Tour of Chongming Island on stage 2
Mia Griffin takes second as Balsamo has to settle for final podium step -
Tour of Holland: Ethan Hayter powers to prologue victory
Cameron Rogers, Jakob Søderqvist beaten by fractions of a second