CANYON//SRAM Racing’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is in Cairns, Australia ahead of the 2017 UCI MTB World Championships that starts competition tomorrow. The Frenchwoman will start her campaign with the XCO team relay tomorrow Wednesday 6 September before racing the Elite Women’s XCO World Championship on Saturday.

Ferrand-Prévot landed in Australia four days ahead of the World Championships that officially opened yesterday allowing a course recon by foot.

“I had a good trip to Australia and the last few days have gone well for recovering from the travel. Yesterday I walked the course and today it opens for official training on the bike,” said Ferrand-Prévot.

“The course is nice. A natural lap with a long climb and a long downhill. It’s not so steep so you need to have power. The GP Plouay race two weeks ago was the perfect preparation for that and I’m really happy to finish my preparation for the MTB worlds with a good result on the road. I felt really strong in Plouay so I hope I can have the same feeling on Saturday.”

Ferrand-Prévot races the MTB worlds this week followed by the road world championships in Norway in two weeks. After missing the 2016 championships for both disciplines Ferrand-Prévot says she has been looking forward to this part of the season this year.

“I trained hard all year for this final goal and I’m already happy to be in the world championship MTB. Until the beginning of July I fight to be selected for this event, and today I feel that something good is possible here in Australia.”

“I feel positive and confident but at the same time I’m keeping the pressure off. I will do my best and I will give everything to finish all the hard work I have done this year. Then we will see what happens this week.”

The XCO Team Relay starts at 15:00 AEST on Wednesday 6 September followed by the Elite Women’s XCO at 12:00 AEST | 04:00 CEST | Saturday 9 September.

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