Félicia Ballanger spent her week at the French Track Championship of the Future in Loudéac, in the track center, to accompany the track riders of the New Caledonia committee but also at the side of the track to give them advice. The three-time Olympic Champion (twice in the individual sprint and once in the 500 meters) who has lived in New Caledonia for more than 20 years, was already in mainland France three months ago for the Olympic Games. The Vendée was in the spotlight during the opening ceremony where she was part of the last square of torch bearers. But the following week, she witnessed the rout of French speed from the front row. For DirectVeloshe notes the “simple things” to be applied so that French speed reignites the flame and where overseas riders must be able to express themselves.
DirectVelo: How are you experiencing what is happening in the French sprint?
Félicia Ballanger: For a long time, we hoped to have indoor velodromes in France, people fought for them for many years. Now, we have several, but we have to keep them alive, put some activity into them and that will bring in young people. By bringing in young people, the level will rise. As long as we take care of young people, it produces results. When we already see the level that the boys display here, the French Cadettes 200 meters record broken… In each region, there must be interesting young people who should be identified and taken care of in the equipment which exist.
How to make them progress?
It is not a question of concentrating young people in one place but that they stay at home longer, with staff that suits them. Do simple things in several places so that it produces competition. If we could reproduce that in each region, or in each large region that has an indoor velodrome. Some regions only have open velodromes which allow you to do things and still have champions but it is more complicated. Let's take advantage of these facilities.
“RATHER THAN PUT EVERYONE IN BOXES”
You experienced two centers (Hyères and INSEP), what was the advantage?
Already having two different structures. The structure is in the image of the coach who brings it to life. All athletes are different and cannot get along with the same coach. We need to propose more offers with coaches who can be a good match, to do the basic work. These are simple things, that's what we allowed to happen for mountain biking, where each athlete has his own small staff, BMX or road too. We need to think about an organization where everyone can flourish rather than putting everyone in boxes.
There is a lack of competitions. Can training compensate for it?
No, this is an essential point. Now that we have beautiful equipment, even if we still need some, we have to keep them alive and we need competitions. Young people like competition. If there are no track meets, they will go on the road. For the pursuit it's less serious, but for the sprint, we are certainly losing young people who have potential for the sprint because nothing is happening on the track. It's less fun to train. The youngest cannot move to run far. It is in the regions that races are needed. Before, we said “the track is complicated, we cancel when it rains”, but now, indoor velodromes have to organize competitions.
“24 HOURS OF TRAVEL AND NINE HOURS OF TIME DIFFERENCE”
In this French Championship, Overseas represents a good part of the participants in the speed tournaments. Is this a sufficiently exploited breeding ground?
It's a subject that I know well, I've been dealing with it for 20 years for athletes, not just cyclists, in New Caledonia. It has been proven that there is physical potential in Overseas which has contributed to the French teams, in handball, in athletics. When we see the composition of the quarter-finals among the U19s or among the Cadettes, we see that they are very present. But they are far away and often isolated. There are nearby overseas territories such as the Antilles, where it is quite easy to travel back and forth, and very distant overseas territories such as the Pacific. It takes 24 hours to travel to reach the mainland, a nine-hour time difference, the costs are multiplied. They can train on an open velodrome thanks to the sun but they have to seek out competition. Coming from New Caledonia to mainland France, the plane ticket is 2,500 euros per person, you have to arrive ten days before to recover from jet lag, these are additional accommodation costs, car rental for the material. It's not easy to find the funds
Is it easy to attract young people to New Caledonia?
It's the same in all regions, you have to offer something regular. Out of six selected, four come from the Cycling school that we set up (Caledonian Cycling School, Editor’s note). The older ones come to continue their studies in mainland France. We look at what discipline they can flourish in. We need to offer them something to do. There is also competition from other disciplines. This year with the riots, the road and mountain bike races were canceled but the track was able to resume early enough for proper training. The Nouméa velodrome is in very poor condition, 333 m in concrete, built in 1960 and very poorly maintained. They train in difficult conditions. That's why we're taking them to New Zealand to Cambridge so they can see what a wooden velodrome is.
You also have velodromes in neighboring countries…
We are lucky to be two hours from New Zealand and Australia, two big cycling nations. We made this choice to come to mainland France once, because they are French and they have to come and take part in the French Championship, but the main competitions are in New Zealand and Australia. We also take them to the Oceania Championship, it is a very high level, as much as a French Championship but with more density among the young people. Even if it's not far, it's still a cost with the plane travel, we can't do it every weekend.
