Dole’s special envoy
Having fully prepared for the biathlon season since June, Quentin Fillon-Meillet skipped the Tour de France on Saturday, passing through his Jura lands. For the five-time Olympic medalist (including two gold medals), an inexplicable encounter since Switzerland’s Dole-Lausanne stage, which crossed Saint-Laurent-en-Granvaux, his village, but also Champaignol, his birthplace. Right next to Christian Prudhomme, in the race director’s car, he plunged into the heart of an event that had shaken his youth.
“The Tour de France is first and foremost a family memory in front of the TV. I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time, but I vividly remember the passing of the caravan and runners in front of my house one year. When the runners passed, we set up a small stand. I was marked by public enthusiasm“Says Jura, who in recent years has approached several runners: Romain Barde, Thibaut Pinot, David Gaudu, Guillaume Martin, Alexis Vuillermoz or Benoit Cosnefro, with whom he sometimes trains.
I’m no roller coaster, that’s for sure, maybe a bit of a sprinter, even a puncher, but I love climbing.
Quentin Fillon Maille
“First of all, they are good guys, and then what they do is really impressive. three weeks of hard work with very little rest, six hours a day cycling, in changing conditions, rain, heat… But this sport also causes: a bit of a disappointment as along with pure performance you have to deal with occasional crashes or mechanical issues, puncturesadds the champion, who defines himself behind the wheel as a mountaineer. “I’m no roller coaster, that’s for sure, maybe a bit of a sprinter, even a puncher, but I love climbing.»
If he doesn’t trade his skis and rifle for a bicycle, Fillon-Meillet points out several similarities between the two sports. “Even if the effort is not quite like that found in cross-country skiing, the performance approach is quite similar in some ways. Cycling is very advanced in many areas and I like to compare my experience with cyclists, especially in terms of mental approach, nutrition, physical preparation.“, the 29-year-old sportsman elaborates, who, if he likes to push the pedal, at least at this moment does not see that he is trying his luck too much in the race. “Unfortunately, I don’t get much of a chance to compete because the effort goes much longer on the bike and that’s not the type of effort and training I’m up for.With 16 World Cup victories, the athlete will have to wait until the end of November to smell the aroma of competition on skis and with a rifle.
Source: Le Figaro
