Mathilde Gros brought France her first title at the Track World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines on Friday by beating Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich in the final of the queen event, speed.
This is the first world title for the 23-year-old Frenchwoman, a great hope for the sprint, less than two years after the 2024 Olympics held in the same velodrome.
And this triumph, he did not steal, after having dominated the powerful German team alone. First of all, in the semifinals, by expelling the double title holder, Emma Hinze from the tournament, despite the defeat in the first round.
He did it again for gold leaving no chance for Lea Sophie Friedrich, this time in two consecutive matches to experience the best day of her life on a bicycle.
Mathilde Gros, born in Pas-de-Calais but raised in Bouche-du-Rhône, discovered cycling by chance eight years ago when she was a high-level basketball apprentice and dreamed of a three-point basket.
“I take slaps”
Gifted, she immediately established herself as a great hope of French sport by chaining titles among the youth teams, some then foreseeing a destiny like Félicia Ballanger, the great lady of the French sprint, triple Olympic champion.
This pressure, she struggled to bear it, chaining setbacks after a promising third place finish at the 2019 World Cup, often due to a lack of self-confidence.
“I take slaps but one day I will have a click,” he said last year after two consecutive poor performances at the Tokyo Games (9th in individual speed and 13th in keirin) and the World Championships in Roubaix (9th in keirin). ).
The click arrived on Friday, on the velodrome where she dreams of winning Olympic gold in less than two years and where she knew how to make herself violent to believe more in herself.
And he plays face to face with the champions he admires, as he demonstrated by challenging his opponents with his eyes for long seconds.
“Since his arrival in January, Grégory Baugé has told me that basically I do it for fun and I try to apply it,” he said before the World Cup, of the former champion and new national team coach.
“Join him on this planet”
A pleasure that she shared on Friday with the large and over-excited public of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome who sang passionately “Mathilde, Mathilde”.
He was warmed by the beautiful silver medal won in prime time by Melvin Landereau, who was then the second charm for France in these World Championships after the bronze won the day before by the women’s pursuit team.
The European champion of the kilometer in August in Munich certainly could not do anything against the overbearing Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland who kept the title with a margin of more than 1 sec 4/10.
But he also opened up his appetite for the 2024 Olympics at the age of 24.
“It’s a great performance,” he commented. From the start, I knew it was going to be very difficult to catch. The goal is to fill this ‘void’ with him from the Games. We will return to work to try to join him on this planet. “
A planet where the Italian Filippo Ganna also lives, who has won a fifth world title in the individual pursuit, a new world record at stake.
The best rider on the planet, on the other hand, arrived tired at these World Championships after having beaten another record last Saturday, the legendary time to travel 56,792 kilometers on the Granges track, in Switzerland.
But he was able to find the resources to beat compatriot Jonathan Milan in the final and enrich his trophy cabinet which also includes two world titles in the road time trial.
