Pauline Ferrand Prevot becomes double World Champion in Les Gets

France's Pauline Ferrand Prevot has just been proclaimed 2022 XCO World Champion on the Les Gets circuit. After her victory on Friday in the XCC and a great performance in today's XCO, Pauline became the first person to win the double World Championship, in Short Track and XCO.

Pauline Ferrand Prevot wins the XCO World Championship 2022 in Les Gets

The Les Gets course gave us a "slow" start with French riders Lena Gerault and Pauline Ferrand Prevot at the front. But after a first uphill where Pauline tried to change the pace to go solo, Jolanda Neff jumped out of the chasing group to close the gap with Pauline.

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We had not even reached the first half of the first lap when the situation looked like the end of the race. Pauline Ferrand Prevot launched a second attack, much harder this time, and managed to get 20 seconds ahead of Jolanda Neff and Loana Lecomte. 

In a third group, more than half a minute behind Pauline, we found the American Haley Batten, the Swiss Alessandra Keller and the Italian Martina Berta, among others.

At the start of lap 2, the race would be a total of 6, Pauline Ferrand Prevot held a solo lead of 20 seconds over her compatriot, Loana Lecomte. But in the chasing group the positions changed very quickly when Haley Batten made a hard change of pace that allowed her to catch Lecomte and overtake her and Alessandra Keller.

Pauline Ferrand Prevot's performance was on full show and by lap 3 she was almost 1:30 minutes ahead of her first pursuer, Haley Batten. Alessandra Keller was holding third, while behind, Loana Lecomte was struggling to hold on to fourth place.

A little further back, Jolanda Neff was recovering from her early race setback and after recovering positions, she overtook Lecomte on lap 4 and went straight into the battle for the medals.

Swiss @jolandaneff taking over @kellerale96 and Haley Batten #LesGets2022 pic.twitter.com/n6fpaKQ4Zj

— UCI MTB (@UCI_MTB) August 28, 2022

Before the end of lap 4, Neff had already overtaken the pursuing Keller-Batten duo to take second place, 1:43 minutes behind Pauline Ferrand Prevot.

The final lap began with no change in the lead and Pauline Ferrand Prevot riding steadily towards her fourth XCO World title and to become the first person to win a double XCC and XCO World Championship.

Jolanda Neff had settled into second place and was riding alone, 1:33 minutes behind Pauline. Behind her, Haley Batten was third, 20 seconds behind Neff and already almost 40 seconds ahead of Keller.

On the finishing straight, Pauline Ferrand Prevot gave a real crowd-pleaser in front of her home crowd to enter as the winner and new XCO World Champion. Jolanda Neff took the silver medal and Haley Batten closed the podium winning the bronze. 

Results XCO Women's World Championships 2022

1. FERRAND PREVOT Pauline FRA 
2. NEFF Jolanda SUI 
3. BATTEN Haley USA
4. LECOMTE Loana FRA 
5. KELLER Alessandra SUI
6. TERPSTRA Anne NED 
7. MITTERWALLNER Mona AUT
8. DEGN Malene DEN 
9. BOHE Caroline DEN 
10. LAST Annie GB