American Batten claims silver, Ferrand-Prevot dominates women’s mountain bike race

Sunny conditions set the stage for the women’s mountain bike final. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot exorcised her Olympic demons and crossed the finish line first, winning gold with a time of 1:26:02. American Haley Batten recovered after an early punctured tire to claim silver.

FULL RESULTS

After the first lap, France’s Loana Lecomte led a top group of four consisting of teammate Ferrand-Prevot, Dutch rider Puck Pieterse and Austria’s Laura Stigger. 

On the second lap, Ferrand-Prevot separated herself from the lead group by storming up the steepest incline the race offers. The French rider’s strong race kept the crowd animated for the whole race. Ferrand-Prevot ended the lap 29 seconds ahead of Pieterse, in second.

After three laps, Ferrand-Prevot extended her lead to 61 seconds. Batten pushed up the standings, she crossed in fourth, 90 seconds behind the lead. Pieterse and Lecomte held their second and third place spots respectively. 

Batten’s medal hopes almost died on the fourth lap when her bike tire flattened on the rock portion of the race. The repair caused her to fall to eighth before recovering some of the lost ground. 

On the fourth lap, Lecomte suffered a nasty fall in the rock garden. She did not immediately get up and would not finish the race, a devastating result for the French athlete that started the race strongly and was considered a favorite to medal. 

Ferrand-Prevot dominated the race, riding most of the time by herself. At the 22km mark, the 32-year-old had a two minute and fifty second lead over second – an unheard-of lead for an Olympic race.

The silver medal race heated up on the fifth lap. Pieterse had to stop at the pit station to fix a flat tire, losing her spot. Batten managed to close the gap and regained the lead position within the chase group. Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds slowly climbed her way to the chase group and remained in a medal position for most of the back half of the race. 

The crowd serenated Ferrand-Prevot as she neared the finish. She crossed the finish line with tears in her eyes. The gold medal was a relief for her, racing in her fourth Olympic Games. The French athlete finished 25th in 2012, did not finish in 2016, and finished 10th in Tokyo. Her gold medal finish was the largest winning margin in Olympic history for this event. It was also the first gold medal won by a woman for France.

“I’m struggling to realize. I had a perfect race and a perfect preparation,” she added, “I said, ‘No, it’s not possible, it’s not for me, it’s a dream.’ After that, I was just so happy to see my parents. It’s a great feeling but to be honest, I don’t realize yet, so I even don’t know what to say. I’m sorry.” 

The last lap saw Batten and Rissveds jockey for silver. Batten looked determined and powered past the Swede for a comfortable finish and claimed silver. The 25-year-old finished 2:57 behind Ferrand-Prevot, a big improvement over her ninth-place finish in Tokyo. Rissveds finished right behind her for bronze. 

After the race, Batten commented on how the race with Rissveds helped her persevere. “Me and Jenny have been racing together at every single race so, she made me a better athlete. When we were together in these last few laps, I knew it would be very hard to be there, and I put my whole heart into this race. I had something special inside of me today. My legs never hurt for some reason. I flattened my tire and broke my wheel, but luckily I was able to ride with it the whole way. The mechanic is amazing, that was the fastest wheel change.”

Batten’s silver is the best-ever finish in mountain bike (men or women) for the United States and the first medal in the discipline since 2012. American Savila Blunk finished 12th in her first Olympics, 5:50 behind the lead.

Batten was ecstatic after the race. “I’ve visualized finishing with the medal around my neck for a long time, so I knew I would feel special but I can’t explain how amazing that is.”