Cross-country skiing : a day of frustration and satisfaction for Lucas Chanavat
This Saturday, Lucas Chanavat finished sixth in the classic sprint of the cross-country skiing World Cup in Les Rousses (Jura), a race won by the young Swede Edvin Anger. The native of Haut-Savoie spoke to Nordic Magazine about the day.
- How do you feel about finishing sixth?
I’m very frustrated about the final, but overall I’m happy with the day. It’s a classic sprint, which isn’t my speciality either, but I still had some good weapons today. Maybe I should have tweaked the grip a bit before the final. I lacked it. Physically, I was a bit weaker too. I have no regrets because I gave it my all, but I’m frustrated with the result all the same.
- You lacked a bit of gas in the final. Did being in the second semi-final have an impact?
I don’t usually choose to be in the second half of the table. I was in the second half, so it’s true that things got going again quite quickly. But I was feeling good at the start of the final. The final went very quickly, maybe a little too quickly for me. If I’d watched it, it could have been completely different. They lit up right away in the bump. I knew that was my weak point. In the qualifiers, I wasn’t in the best times at the top of the hill and I made up for it all on the descent and the finish. It really came down to that. I put too much pressure on my arms and had to push my way to the top. I chose to be very light on the grip. I think that was a mistake. I should have put a bit more back into it, reloaded the ski so that I could really follow the tempo over the first bump.
- You found yourself in the middle of the group, particularly in the semi-final. Weren’t you afraid of risking an incident?
No, I manage it really well. It’s true that I prefer to play in front to avoid breaking my stick or falling. But I stay stable. I know that it’s also an asset to my game. So I wasn’t worried at all. Especially as I knew I had the downhill, where I was really good.
- In terms of classical music, you’ve got some very good references…
That’s really cool. Especially as lately I haven’t been feeling very good in the classics. This year, it’s really skateboarding, so I’m really concentrating on the Worlds. But I’m still happy to have done it. A lot of good things have come out of the classics. I need to confirm them and improve them further. As far as the push was concerned, I felt really good, it was fun.
- What do you think of the French team’s collective performance today?
It’s a real shame for Richard [Jouve]. It didn’t come down to much. If it had gone through to the quarter-finals, it’s clear that he would still have been in the match for victory today. We really want to be good here. But this year, we’re really focusing on the world championships. We’re really focusing on that. Jules [Chappaz, editor’s note] is coming back really well. That’s great. Renaud [Jay, editor’s note] had a great race too, especially as he didn’t really know where he stood. He hadn’t raced for a while. I think he had a lot of emotions after the race. Overall, there’s a bit of everything, in fact. There are great successes and great frustrations. It’s all part of the sprint game.
“From the moment we qualified it was crazy, we couldn’t get along”.Lucas Chanavat at Nordic Magazine
- And the atmosphere was crazy…
The atmosphere was incredible. Right from qualifying it was crazy, we couldn’t hear each other. It was great, it was a really cool experience. It was just too good. In any case, it’s one of the best World Cups. But I think that for foreigners too, it’s really a cauldron, especially in a sprint like that where it’s screaming from A to Z. It’s crazy to experience, it’s really cool, it’s really stimulating.
- Heading for the world championships now?
Yes, that’s right, I’m going to start preparing for the world championships. It’s a bit like the first stage of what’s to come. The idea today was also to play a full tournament in preparation for the Worlds. So that’s a good thing. The programme is going to be: preparation, altitude training and the World Cup. The World Cups will be the final adjustments for Trondheim.
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