Cross-country skiing: Les Bleus failed to make the difference in Trondheim
It was a hard blow for Les Bleus at the world championships in Trondheim (Norway) on Thursday. Beaten in the final heat of the men’s relay, Rémi Bourdin, Hugo Lapalus, Jules Lapierre and Mathis Desloges were unable to get back on the medal trail in a format that has often favoured the French at recent international events.
A few minutes after this frustrating fourth place, Hugo Lapalus, the second relay runner in the French contingent, was still struggling to find the words to explain the reasons for this setback in his quest for a first medal of the fortnight.
“I don’t know what we missed. We did what we had to do. Everyone skied as well as they could. We stacked up the relays one after the other and it’s fourth again. It hurts,” he admitted to Nordic Magazine. It’s also starting to take its toll in three or four days. We’re missing out on a lot of our goals.
Already terribly disappointed in the individual classic, a race on which Le Cluse had put a lot of faith, this latest blow was not welcome: “It’s really hard for us as athletes, for the staff who have been working hard for a fortnight to get us the best equipment, for the coaches and for the guys who weren’t running trackside. It’s hard not to give them the reward they deserve”, he confides.
“We had to hurt othersHugo Lapalus at Nordic Magazine
Although they have often played in this competition, Les Bleus have not managed to outrun their respective opponents. “In terms of tactics, we told ourselves that if we wanted a medal, we had to go out and get it. We had to hurt the others. We did that, but it wasn’t enough. We stayed in a group of five athletes the whole time. We knew that at the finish, if we didn’t get at least one sprinter to jump, it was going to be complicated,” he admits. It’s the relay game. You win together and you lose together. Today, we lost together. That’s the second time we’ve finished fourth. It’s not for the same reasons, but it’s still twice. And twice hurts.
A chocolate medal that is all the more frustrating in view of the level displayed by the French athletes. “We know we have the potential to go out and win a medal. The tracks weren’t hard enough today. But that’s no excuse. With harder tracks, I know we’re in good shape and we can hurt them,” he regrets. Today, they were stronger than us. Now we have to stay motivated for what’s to come. We’ve got to pull ourselves together again and go after what’s still up for grabs.
“Distances have changed and we have to adapt too”.Hugo Lapalus at Nordic Magazine
It must be said that this was also the first time that the men’s race was run over a 7.5-kilometre route rather than a 10-kilometre one. A change that no longer created the same differences as in other editions. “I liked it better when it was 4×10 kilometres than 4×7.5. You have time to ski, you have time to hurt yourself and you also have time to hurt yourself at the top,” he analyses. You can also get trapped. For us, the ten kilometre slopes have always been an advantage. In any case, we prefer that. Today, distances have changed and we also have to adapt, and that’s just the way it is.
Read also
- Trondheim: beaten in the final, the French finish at the foot of the podium in the relay won by an untouchable Norway
- “I’m not looking for excuses”: a lot of disappointment for Hugo Lapalus after the individual classic at the world championships
