And, in the end, it is the French who win. Of the last three relays, they have won two. Once again, the French women’s relay team triumphed in Ruhpolding with a team made up of the two Chevalier sisters, Chloé and Anaïs, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and Julia Simon. The Habs have imposed their law on the German track. Favorites, they assumed their status until the end by carrying out a serious race on this 4 x 6 km relay.
It was Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet who launched Les Bleues. It misses the target twice (two pickaxes). At the end of the first stint, the French women are fourth, just 20 seconds behind the Norwegians. The rest of the race is almost perfect. The other three relay runners only realize two faults, one from Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and one from Julia Simon. “We all had a serious race. It’s really too good. Easy shots? There aren’t really any, ”they explained, at the microphone of La Chaîne L’Equipe, just after the race.
At the forefront from start to finish, Les Bleues broke away definitively at mid-race from the relay provided by Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Julia Simon quietly crossing the finish line with the tricolor in her hands and a lead. comfortable (35.1 seconds) over Sweden (Johanna Skottheim, Stina Nilsson, Mona Brorsson, Anna Magnusson), Russia (Valeriia Vasnetcova, Svetlana Mironova, Irina Kazakevich, Kristina Reztsova) finishing 3rd at 1′12′’2.
With this second relay victory, the French take first place in the general classification of the World Cup. They cannot achieve better preparation a few weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics (February 4 to 20).
