Lecomte wins 2022 XCO European Championships after Pauline Ferrand Prevot's mechanical failure

French rider Loana Lecomte has just won the 2022 XCO European Championships at the age of 23. The race has been marked by the French domination and by Pauline Ferrand Prevot's chain failure when she was leading the race with more than 30 seconds ahead of Lecomte.

Loana Lecomte wins the 2022 XCO European Championships after Pauline Ferrand Prevot's failure due to muddy road conditions

Under the heavy rain in Munich, the start of the women's race of the European Athletics Championships 2022 took place. A race in which the favourites did not make anyone wait and from the first metres we saw the French Loana Lecomte take the lead, followed by the Swiss Jolanda Neff, the Dutch Anne Terpstra and the current defending champion, Pauline Ferrand Prevot.

The two Frenchwomen tried to break the race from lap 1 with an imposing pace from Lecomte that only Pauline Ferrand Prevot could follow. But the course had become very slippery and that allowed the chasing duo of Switzerland's Jolanda Neff and Alessandra Keller to close in on the leaders after several mistakes on the uphill.

But the pace of the French was far superior and at the start of lap 2 they were already 11 seconds ahead of the Swiss. In addition, we could see how Lecomte and Ferrand Prevot were racing as a team giving each other several relays.

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The French collaboration came to an end on lap 2 and to the surprise of many it was Pauline Ferrand Prevot who attacked to break away from Loana Lecomte with astonishing ease.

Behind, there was also movement when Jolanda Neff decided to push the pace to try to catch the leaders, which caused her compatriot Alessandra Keller to drop off the pace.

The race was completely turned upside down when Pauline Ferrand Prevot suffered a chain failure due to the mud accumulated in her drivetrain. A minor breakdown that she was able to fix herself, but at the same time she saw her team-mate Loana Lecomte catch her and overtake her without being able to do anything.

At the start of lap 4, Lecomte passed first with almost 1 minute ahead of Pauline Ferrand Prevot. While Jolanda Neff remained third, 2 minutes behind in the lead with Anne Terpstra closing in on her dangerously.

Pauline's failure didn't seem to have affected her intentions of retaining the title and she started a comeback in which she certainly didn't seem to cut too much time with Lecomte.

Despite Pauline's incident, the French women were riding at a much higher level and with 2 laps to go Anne Terpstra was third at 2:39 minutes. Neff slipped to fourth, almost 3 minutes behind Lecomte.

The positions did not move on the last lap and finally French rider Loana Lecomte reached the finish line first to win, at the age of 23, her first XCO 2022 European Championship.

The silver medal went to Pauline Ferrand Prevot who could have raced conservatively after her mechanical failure and with her sights set on next week's World Championships. The bronze medal went to Anne Terpstra from the Netherlands who knew how to play her cards well in the race to stay ahead of the strong Swiss team.

Results European Women's XCO Championships 2022

1. LECOMTE Loana FRA 
2. FERRAND PREVOT Pauline FRA
3. TERPSTRA Anne NED
4. NEFF Jolanda SUI
5. BOHÉ Caroline DEN
6. KELLER Alessandra SUI
7. FREI Sina SUI
8. DEGN Malene DEN
9. INDERGAND Linda SUI
10. BERTA Martina ITA