Olympic cyclists criticize the streets of Paris, man-made mountain bike venue as competition begins

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British team members practice at the Mountain Bike cycling track, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Elancourt, France. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

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Mexico’s Erika Rodriguez Suarez practices at the Mountain Bike cycling track, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Elancourt, France. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

By DAVE SKRETTA

PARIS (AP) — Remco Evenepoel was unimpressed by the rough roads that Olympic cyclists had to cover in the time trial through Paris on Saturday, while Nino Schurter was just as critical of the gravel covering the man-made mountain bike course in nearby Elancourt.

Evenepoel, fresh off his third-place finish in the Tour de France, described the first and last five kilometers of the time trial as bad roads being made worse by the rain, which made for a damp opening ceremony on Friday night and continued into Saturday, when the start of skateboarding had to be postponed due to the weather.

The time trial began upstream from the Eiffel Tower on the Esplanade, and covered 32.4 kilometers (19.8 miles) past Place de la Bastille and through the Polygone de Vincennes, before finishing at the gilded Pont Alexandre III bridge over the Seine River.

“Quite some beautiful sightseeing as well,” Evenepoel acknowledged, “but the road surface is pretty bad in the beginning and in the end. So that might be a problem if you have black spots in front of your eyes in the last kilometers. It’s not so nice.”

The Belgian is the reigning time trial world champion and won the first of two time trials during the Tour de France.

Meanwhile, at Elancourt Hill about 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) outside of Paris, the Olympic mountain bike course was carved through the site of a former sandstone quarry-turned-landfill. It was regenerated into a park in the 1980s, and one of the highest points in the region now offers sprawling vistas of the Eiffel Tower, La Défense and the forests around Paris.

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The course was designed by South African expert Nick Floros, who also designed the mountain bike venue for the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, and features man-made jumps and rock gardens with stretches of gravel-covered paths.

The women’s competition is Sunday and the men cover the same course Monday.

“It’s slippery. It’s quite loose,” said Schurter, a three-time Olympic medalist and the champion in Rio. “If you go fast it’s super slippery. I hope the gravel still goes a bit to the side and makes it less loose everywhere. You can feel there was no mountain biking before and it’s 100% man-made, like we saw in London and in Rio.

“It could be a bit more natural,” Schurter acknowledged, “but in general it’s nice.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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