Downhill mountain biking: world title in sight for Millavoise Marine Cabirou

Marine Cabirou sera la seule représentante millavoise en Andorre. Midi libre – Maxime Cohen

Millavoise Marine Cabirou will be in the running for the world title this weekend on the slopes of the Andorran Pyrenees.

There have been too many places of honor. Marine Cabirou, vice-world champion in 2021 in Val di Sole (Italy) and third last year in Fort William (Scotland), now wants to win the only metal she is missing. From this trip to Andorra, she hopes to bring back something other than cheap cigarettes for her friends. "It's hard to come and ride here and tell yourself that you don't want to win, she concedes. Anything is possible."

The Millavoise showed it at the start of the season, she is in good shape. The summer break could only have done him good to best prepare for this major event in the calendar that will be played out on the slopes of Pal Arinsal. "I was able to recover well, ride the downhill bike and do some tests, the form is there." A quick stop at home in Millau "which always does you good to cut off", before returning to the Alps, the ideal place to chain together runs on the DH bike to get as many bearings as possible.

The European Championships as preparation

The opportunity for her to ride in the European championships where she took third place behind the local stage rider Lisa Baumann and the reigning world champion Valentina Höll. "The competition went well, we had chosen not to push too hard on the bike, it was a preparation race", details the Scott DH Factory team rider. After this final competition, she devoted herself to the world championships and skipped the French championships which were taking place this weekend in Valberg, like the favorites in the men's category, all absent from this national event. "It was a long topic of discussion, she admits. The choice of putting it on this date was not the best, we were racing on Saturday and we had to be in Andorra on Monday, it was a lot." Without her and Myriam Nicole, it was the young Hérault rider Lisa Bouladou who took the opportunity to don the tricolor jersey.

Dylan Levesque victim of a ruptured cruciate ligament

This year, Marine Cabirou will be the only representative of the French delegation at the world championships. During the last three editions, she was accompanied by Dylan Levesque, also a member of the Scott DH Factory team. The latter prematurely ended his his season following a rupture of the cruciate ligaments, following a fall. A long period of absence is therefore expected for him.

Competition at the rendezvous

For the rainbow, however, it is difficult to predict at the start of the week who could leave with Andorra. In the general World Cup ranking, it is the Austrian Valentina Höll who dominates, followed by Tahnee Seagrave and the Millavoise. Of the five rounds contested, four different riders won one, including Marine Cabirou in Bielsko-Biala in Poland and Valentina Höll won twice (Fort William and Leogang). "Quite a few people are in good shape, recognizes Marine Cabirou. I'm focusing on myself, on my race week, I trained well, I did everything I needed to be at the best level here."

Having arrived a little early in the Pyrenees, she took her first pedal strokes on Sunday, will be doing the track reconnaissance on foot this Wednesday before starting training sessions, then qualifying (Thursday) and a final on Saturday. "It will be last year's track with a few modifications, she notes. Quite fast, very bikepark-like at the beginning with technical parts at the end, not the one that suits me best." She will be accompanied by the two neighbors from Hérault, Myriam Nicole and Lisa Bouladou as well as Vicky Clavel in the French delegation.