The result did not live up to the fiery atmosphere at Grand-Bornand. In any case for this first individual race for the men, because the weekend is still long. Five French people had however experienced the joy of getting on the podium at the start of the season, the only short individual from Kontiolahti being an exception. And again, two Blues participated in the flower ceremony rewarding the first six. So obviously, there was disappointment, even if Eric Perrot (7th), Emilien Jacquelin (8th) and Quentin Fillon Maillet (10th) finished in the Top 10 and can hope for better in the pursuit on Saturday.
“Overall, I’m happy, apart from the last ball which went a little quickly. I’m happy to do my first 90% shooting since the start of the season“, still estimated Fillon Maillet at the microphone of Eurosport. Before quickly qualifying: “On the skis, the sensations were good, but the weather does not reveal the sensations. I was rather calm about the ski times at Hochfilzen and now I don’t really understand. I don’t have any comparison in terms of sliding compared to other nations, so it’s difficult to say. From the first intermediate – 15 seconds after the first big difficult part – I had already lost a lot of time, so I was quite surprised.”
Full throttle until the end, Uldal will seek victory in the sprint: the finish on video
Video credit: Eurosport
Too striking a contrast with Hochfilzen to advance the physical factor
And we can understand it. In this Grand Bornand sprint, Emilien Jacquelin (8/10 shooting) was the only French biathlete to appear in the Top 10 ski times (8th), still conceding 31 seconds on Johannes Boe or 21 on Sebastian Samuelsson. However, only a few days ago, during the pursuit at Hochfilzen, the same Jacquelin was the fastest on the track, “QFM” and Perrot ranking respectively 4th and 7th in this particular area.
Physically, nothing justified a priori giving so much time in the French clan. Would playing at home have stopped them from letting go? A priori no, according to the main stakeholders. When Fillon Maillet, all smiles, said he used the energy of the public, Perrot congratulated himself on having stayed in his race. And yet, despite his 10/10 against the targets, he finished more than 30 seconds from the podium.
The thesis of physical blockage has finally been swept aside by Antonin Guigonnat. “I was better than last weekend in Austria, so it was nice on skis. I was afraid of this slope full of rain and in the end, it was quite slippery and pleasant to ski. I was expecting a track with a softer bottom, which breaks, and less good glide. Ultimately, it remains quite compact. I was surprised to arrive so relaxed, so unaffected by the effort on the shooting range. In these kinds of conditions, it’s a track that doesn’t have many gaps. You have to go all out and try to hold on“, he explained.
Perrot: “I took the revenge I wanted”
Video credit: Eurosport
A waxing problem? “They even lost ground on the downhill section”
If Guigonnat was the slowest of the six French people in the running (1’05 behind Boe), he only conceded 13 seconds on Fabien Claude, the 2nd best Blue on skis this Thursday. This tends to confirm that on equal terms, it was indeed hard to make big differences in this sprint. By elimination and simple deduction, it seems that the French team had a sliding problem which it will have to correct in view of the pursuit and the mass start to play the leading roles this weekend.
“The French lost a lot of ground, including on the downhill section. I think there was a little problem at that level. There is not a lot of progress with this new protocol with this ‘no fluorine’ (in place for the 2nd season in a row, Editor’s note), you have to find new products and become familiar with them. And there is not so much data regarding conditions that the technicians did not have last year“, analyzed Florence Baverel, consultant for Eurosport during the race.
At this level, the smallest detail in waxing can weigh heavily in terms of time to finish. It therefore seems that the Blues have paid for it, even if Emilien Jacquelin, particularly in form at the start of the season, has limited the damage. But it would be very unfair to overwhelm the French technicians who distinguished themselves by their excellence during the first two stages of the World Cup. In Austria, last week, “QFM” paid them a heartfelt tribute. And the weekend has only just begun.
