Seen from a cozy sofa, mountain biking is still a rather special sport! Even a non-athlete can understand why you’re addicted to a racing bike: the exhilaration of the curve, the aerial sensation, the effort rewarded by a beautiful descent… But the “cross-country all-terrain bike” is this rough and spectacular performance where you have to climb all kinds of places, designed for nature walks more than for two-wheelers: sunken paths in a forest, sandy tracks, silted puddles, rocks, pebbles… The everything, whether it’s raining, snowing or windy, sometimes with mud in your face. And as long as we do things well, without putting one foot on the ground, let alone breaking our face, and of course, as quickly as possible. A truly crazy thing, to which Loana Lecomte, a frail 24-year-old champion perfectly placed to win Olympic gold, has devoted almost every day of her life since CE2.
A meticulous schedule
Between two races and three training sessions, we meet the young woman in a café during one of her rare visits to Paris. First surprise: its tiny size. What ? It’s her, this little bright, harmless and well-bred blonde, this girl of her generation with relaxed simplicity, who thrills the most seasoned mountain bike warriors around the world, the killers of this famous “cross-country”, reputed to be pretty much the opposite of a moonlight stroll? Is it she, this youngest girl who created the surprise by winning four rounds of the World Cup in quick succession in 2021, then by becoming European champion in 2022?
The first pleasure of mountain biking, the one that comes before everything else, is being in the middle of nature
Loana Lecomte smiles quietly over her tea, and this smile is the second surprise: immense and contagious as rarely, it is charming and friendly, but also brandished at regular intervals like an impenetrable shield. This is what a world-class athlete might look like, endowed with a perfectionist mania and extraordinary physical strength, capable of climbing mountains in the truest sense of the term: nothing spectacular. Firm handshake, distance and reserve, the complete opposite of the ex-reality TV star with whom she coincidentally shares the first name.
Loana Lecomte lends herself to the game of the interview, starting by very kindly deciphering her passion for the use of the philistines: “The first pleasure of mountain biking, the one that comes before everything else, is to always be, whatever he arrives, in the middle of nature. For me, it’s more than a passion, it’s a necessity. Then, it is the taste for challenge and physical and technical commitment, the quest for surpassing oneself, the desire to always go further, to always do better. ” Big smile.
Daily training in the mountains
For this little wild girl, Paris, the big city, is beautiful but it’s fine for a day or two. The natural element of this Savoyard woman pushed into the open air on the slopes of the small resort of Carroz-d’Arâches (Haute-Savoie) is the mountain, the mountain, and more mountain. She has now settled in Annecy, and it is always by climbing on the roads surrounding the sublime lake that she begins her training hours, six days a week, around fifteen hours in total per week, what whatever the weather. The rest of the time ? Bodybuilding, skiing, running, physiotherapy… The girl is fidgety.
There will be forty of us leaving together for a 5 kilometer circuit
His biggest favorite? “Rolling in my mountains, coming home proud of myself. » First favorite among the favorites, she is preparing with ardor for the big meeting of the Olympics this summer, the program of which she announces with relish: “There will be forty of us leaving together for a 5 kilometer circuit specially designed in Élancourt, in the Yvelines. About an hour and a half of racing, to be completed as quickly as possible since we are judged by the clock. A very physical, very technical course, but also very fun. We’re going to have a lot of fun riding, and for the spectators, it’s also going to be a great show. ” Big smile.
I suddenly found myself in the spotlight even though I wasn’t prepared for it.
It is still too early to know if his grandparents, his biggest fans and companions since childhood, will be able to join the public. The same goes for his mother, a salesperson and running fan, his father, a judo teacher, his sister, a 20-year-old caregiver, and his little brother, a Paris firefighter at 18. But if they come, the members of this close-knit family will be able to measure with their applause the recent popularity acquired by this phenomenon of muddy paths in the small world of mountain biking. “After my big results in 2021, I changed categories and suddenly found myself in the spotlight even though I wasn’t prepared for it,” remembers this wholehearted girl, not the brash type. , who has nearly 200,000 subscribers on Instagram.
© Dorian Prost
Star of his sport
When you find yourself signing autographs after spending years training anonymously, when strangers come up to you initially thinking they know you, at first it feels weird. I had to learn how to deal with it, but it’s nice to feel supported. » And when we remind her of the bug of the last Olympics, her disappointing performance in Tokyo, of which we read in “L’Équipe” how hard she had been to cope with, the young woman obviously shows off her XXL smile: “I wanted to be in the top 8, I finished 6th, so goal achieved! Even though I had difficult times, I learned a lot, it toughened me. »
Thanks to her sponsors, this gifted cyclist has had the chance to make a living from her passion for four years, and is delighted to get along wonderfully with the entire team of her federation. While other athletes suffer from entrenched sexism in sport, she explains that on the contrary her discipline is one of the most egalitarian: “Same courses for men and women, same amounts for race prizes, same bicycles.
In mountain biking, same routes for men and women, same bonuses, same bikes
And I love talking with the guys on the team, we have a lot to learn from each other. Our vision of performance is different: boys are more powerful, girls compensate in agility or technicality. I think we can mix the two to go further. ” Big smile.
Despite her young age, Loana has obviously already been injured: a distant fracture of the wrist, another of the collarbone two years ago. Pains that she brushes aside by explaining that they are only great classics of high-level mountain biking, almost obligatory passages. But all the same: aren’t we scared once we’ve been there? “Risk is part of the game,” she assures.
I have a bit of a hotheaded side, maybe because I’ve done a lot of skiing
I have a bit of a hotheaded side, perhaps because I did a lot of skiing as a child. This allows me to overcome obstacles that pose more problems for others, notably jumps… But now I also have the experience and hindsight which allow me to calculate the risk-taking. This is my strong point, and sometimes my weak point: I do everything to avoid having anything to regret. But I’m not afraid, and mentally, I’m not giving up. »
Mental health to preserve
Displaying a reinforced concrete mentality is the least we can do before the Olympics, in war as well as in war! Far away is this post on Instagram, in 2021, in the form of a moment of slack where she deplored “the other side of the coin”, the permanent fear of disappointing. “We are not robots”, reminded the young woman for all intents and purposes. Mental health in competitive sport has long been a closely guarded taboo. It is gradually cracking. Today, she would not have the idea of hiding from her audience that she has been accompanied by a “mental coach” since last year, and not just any one: Marie-Laure Brunet, world champion of biathlon in 2009, who knows perfectly well the uncompromising music of competition and the pitfalls of obsession with performance: she left one day very suddenly, the victim of an immense burn-out which caused her career to deviate.
When you reach the top level, the difference between the best is made on the mind
“It helps me to take a step back,” explains the new mountain bike star, “and to avoid wasting my energy stupidly. When you reach the top level, the difference between the best is made mentally. » Enough to freak out her French rival, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, eight years older and five times world champion. When Loana was a teenager, she fell asleep in front of the portrait of Pauline pinned up in her room. They are now rivals. Sports journalists would dream of seeing them kill each other, but the athlete immediately defuses: “We are in competition but we get along very well, we pull each other up. » Big smile, end of story. For the rest, see you on July 28 and 29 in Élancourt. Thousands of fans are expected.
