Mixed day for the Blues at the Cycling Worlds in Ballerup in Denmark. This Thursday started off badly with the premature elimination of Mathilde Gros in the quarter-finals of the individual speed event. But in the evening, Clément Petit brought France its first medal by taking third place in the scratch race, a non-Olympic event, behind the Japanese Kazushige Kuboki and the Dane Tobias Aagaard Hansen.
“A surprise for everyone,” declared the 23-year-old rider who only competes as an amateur on the road. He took advantage of “not being marked” to slip into a group which was one lap ahead of the favorites. “First World Championship, first medal, it’s nice. I was given my chance. I had nothing to lose, no pressure, so that’s how it works,” he stressed.
Mathilde Gros has already experienced pressure since the start of her career. Notably at the Paris Games where she finished in a very disappointing ninth place even though she dreamed of becoming Olympic champion.
“A part of me died that day,” she confided ahead of these World Championships in an interview with AFP and the newspaper L’Équipe, evoking a “hyperpainful” moment when her heart “fell in pieces.”
Thursday, despite the defeat, Mathilde Gros nevertheless showed a calmer face than during her previous failures, including that of the Worlds last year in Glasgow (7th). “It still did me good to resort. Now, I just lost, so I’m disgusted. But it was important to get back on the track,” said the 2022 world champion of the premier event, beaten in two rounds by the Japanese Mina Sato in the quarter-finals.
“After the Games, I didn’t really know how I was going to be physically, especially mentally. So frankly, I’m happy to be here, even if it’s not easy. Yes, we always hope for better. But hey, that’s how it is. And I want to continue,” she insisted.
Big contenders also in the 500m and the keirin
The only Frenchwoman competing this week in the sprint events, she has even decided to add the 500m, a non-Olympic discipline, to her program which she will run on Saturday before ending her week with the keirin on Sunday. “Frankly, I am motivated,” says the person concerned. This is the last time that there is the 500 m in an international competition because after that it moves to the kilometer. I said to myself: why not? I have nothing to lose. I want to hurt my face trying to go as far as possible. And then, on the keirin, I hope to be there. »
In the men’s keirin, the Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen missed, no doubt temporarily, his appointment with history by losing to everyone’s surprise in the semi-finals on Thursday. Winner of his fourteenth world title the day before in team sprint, the “flying Dutchman” aimed to surpass the mark of Frenchman Arnaud Tournant who had been crowned fourteen times between 1997 and 2008.
There remain two opportunities for “Hat-trick Harrie” to seize the record alone, at 27 years old, Friday in the kilometer and Sunday in individual speed, where he remains on five consecutive world titles. His defeat brought happiness to Kento Yamasaki, the first Japanese world champion in keirin, an event born in his country, since Harumi Honda in 1987.
