From the height of his 24 springs, Sébastien Vigier will be the veteran of the French sprint team at the Olympic Games. The early retirement of Grégory Baugé in January propelled him to the top of the French age pyramid. “But it doesn’t change much, he puts into perspective. Grégory gave us a reference on whom we could rely. We lose this advantage but we also have a lot of experience“.
GETTING USED TO THE STARTER
Whoever participates in the World Championship since 2017 will be associated with Florian Grengbo and Rayan Helal. They have already raced together once at the European Under-21 Championship in Ghent in 2019. “We weren’t in optimal shape, it’s not really playing out“. However, the difficulty of the role of torchbearer occupied by the member of the US Créteil is to find the right bearings with the starter.”It is important to do this in race condition. We will work on it in Hyères during our last preparation course“, he indicates.
To be as efficient as possible, Sébastien Vigier has to get used to his new starter. “It’s super important. At the start, I have to be at 70% of my maximum to let go of the starter to make a sprint taken off but if I relax when it is full, the gap becomes too big between us to benefit from the suction. . You have to find the right distance“, he analyzes for DirectVelo. It’s a bit like a rubber band connecting the two runners and the runner has to let it stretch and choose the right time to let go and accelerate to get full ball when the starter pulls away.
SIGNS WITH RINGS
At the Games, the cœheart of cycling will beat away from the Olympic Village, in Izu. “We will be away from the Olympic village, it will be like a World Championship with signs with rings“, he smiles. The Parisian already knows the Japanese velodrome.”I went there in 2018 with Quentin Lafargue and Mathilde Gros. It is true that it is hot and humid but it was not shocking because in a velodrome, it is always hot“, he recalls.
After a big block of work of two weeks and three days of recovery, the French speed team continues its preparation at the Hyères velodrome before flying to Tokyo on July 26. “We are not going to work on team speed every day but mainly. We will also work on the launch of the 200 meters for individual speed”. The goal of the trio is obviously the podium. “We will fight for a medal. In terms of the time, if we go under 42.5, we can play for the podium. The Dutch are strong, the English will be strong. The question mark is the Australians for the medal, but without competition it is difficult to have benchmarks “. The 2019 European Champion Keirin Espoirs does not forget individual disciplines, speed and keirin. “When you’re strong, you’re strong everywhere”. In the land of the rising sun, he aims in all directions.
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