In the wake of the failed Olympics, the French sprint team failed to bring home a medal from the World Track Cycling Championships for the first time since 1990, pushing coach Grégory Baugé towards the exit in a context of great tensions .
Still in post-Olympic decompression, the Blues had only sent a tight selection of eight athletes, including four sprinters, to these Worlds which concluded on Sunday in Ballerup, Denmark. A harvest like that of 2022 (7 medals including 3 titles) was therefore excluded, but France still returned its worst record since 2018 with only two medals.
Endurance held its place with silver on Saturday from Marion Borras and Victoire Berteau at the American as well as bronze from Clément Petit on Thursday in the points race. The promises sown by the sparkling Oscar Nilsson-Julien, fourth in the Omnium and 9th in the American on Sunday with Petit, are also encouraging for the future.
But the tournament will remain marked by the new disaster of the sprint which had already completely missed its Olympic meeting – no medal in Paris for the first time since 1992 – and which did not even reach a single final in Denmark.
The men’s team sprint disappeared in the first round, while Mathilde Gros was eliminated in the sprint quarter-finals and at the same stage of the keirin competition on Sunday.
Runners summoned on Monday
Frenchman Clément Petit, bronze medalist in the points race at the Track Cycling Worlds, October 17, 2024 in Ballerup (Denmark) / Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
The disillusionment of the Olympics had given rise to strong tensions between team sprinters and management in a discipline where the Blues had reigned in terror in the past.
And we cannot say that they have calmed down in Denmark.
Wednesday, Sébastien Vigier, “mentally tired because things are not going well”and Melvin Landerneau even called for “change everything” in a “French system blocked since the 2000s”.
Left at home, Florian Grengbo, starter at the Olympics, questioned the management, starting with Florian Rousseau, former triple Olympic champion and director of the Olympic program, and Grégory Baugé, the national sprint coach.
Faced with this slump, the latter announced on Sunday that he had made the decision, even before the Worlds, to leave his position to devote himself to detection.
Without forgetting to scratch the runners in the process “who do not take their responsibilities”. “The federation will recognize its faults, but when you are a high-level athlete, before looking elsewhere, you have to be able to look in the mirror”he snapped.
Florian Rousseau showed solidarity with Baugé, insisting on the fact that the Federation had “brought a lot of listening” to athletes. He announced that everyone was summoned by the National Technical Directorate on Monday and that announcements were planned immediately, including the appointment of a coach responsible for acting.
Mathilde Gros “grit your teeth”
“What we want is appeasement, discussion” to try to “repair what may have broken in recent months. But it’s going to take time.”he stressed.
Mathilde Gros, who was not targeted by Baugé’s grievances, for her part called on everyone to “to question” et “put egos aside”.
“I’m not targeting anyone because at any given moment it’s us athletes who are on the bike. When I return in 2025, I think things will have smoothed out. Everyone will have emptied their bags. »
“When we go very, very low, we can go back very, very high again, that’s what I hope”added the Provençale, still very touched after her failure in Paris where she saw herself ” die “ she was so disappointed.
In Denmark, she has not really managed to heal her wounds. “But it’s okay. I love this sport and I love this environment so I grit my teeth and I believe that it will get better at some point”developed the Frenchwoman before “disappear a little”in a place “really lost where there is no network”with “just a book by the fire”.
