The French track team traveled light to go to the Track World Championship in Ballerup in Denmark. The endurance group is reduced to five runners, two boys and three girls (see the selection). “The selection was easy to make for the Menindicates Steven Henry at DirectVelo. Those who were at the Olympics did not mention the World Championship, they had given a lot and wanted to get back on the road“. Among the Women, we found three selected from Paris before the withdrawal of Valentine Fortin (read here), “but there is less density among the next generation and there is the problem of points (you need 250 points in the UCI ranking of the discipline to participate, Editor’s note)”. The national coach therefore chose to refocus on peloton races and spend his turn in the team pursuit.
Other countries present at the Games this summer are also skipping the team pursuit such as Australia, Belgium for the Men or New Zealand, which is sending a very small delegation to Denmark. “A World Cup just after the Olympics is complicatedrecalls the national coach. The last time was in Roubaix but we were still in the development phase. Absences give young runners their chance to rub shoulders with the world elite“. Oscar Nilsson-Julien and Clément Petit will therefore discover the Mondial Elite. “It feels good to have boys at their first World Championship“The selection of the Franco-British had been on Steven Henry’s shelves for several months.”I had planned with Oscar in the spring. Clément has been with us since Juniors. This year, he spent a little time on the road and the track. These are two riders from the 2028 generation“.
HYPOXIA PREPARATION FOR OSCAR NILSSON-JULIEN
While the VC Rouen 76 member won two Elite Nationale in a row, the Van Rysel-Roubaix trainee fell at the Tour of Great Britain. “Oscar suffered hypoxia after the Tour of Britain“As a result, the French Elite team was absent from the 3 Days of Aigle, a great preparation event where the representative of AVC Aix-en-Provence had shone last year. “We avoided making him resume too quickly, we preferred that he be completely cured“. On the women’s side, Steven Henry wanted to wait, with Samuel Monnerais, to survey the selected women upon their return from the Simac Ladies Tour to distribute the roles in the peloton races. Valentine Fortin’s withdrawal forced him to change his plans for the American where she had to reconstitute the European Champion pair with Marion Borras.
The World Championship will also be an opportunity for the national coach to obtain details on the new developments decided by the UCI for the future of the track. For example, the end of the presence of UCI sports groups in the Nations Cup (read here). “Everything will rest on the national federations“, he imagines, even though they are already in high demand. Another big change, the new UCI rankings (read here). “Having a single ranking for endurance will be simpler and more logical and there will no longer be a need to seek points in each discipline.“On the other hand, he would have liked the federation to go further by awarding UCI points for the road classification to track riders.”I strongly regret this for those who practice dual activity, it would make working with the pro teams easier, it would not be a battle to get the riders. We pride ourselves on having truck drivers on the track but we do nothing to help them“. At the time of the FICP ranking, the international federation awarded points to runners classified in the 6 Days, which meant that squirrels like Danny Clark or Pierangelo Bincoletto found themselves around 200th place in the world.
