Following her silver medal as part of France's mixed relay team time trial squad at the UCI Road World Championships, team leader Audrey Cordon-Ragot has said that she has got her "career spotlight".
The 33-year-old has been a national champion in the time trial and road race six times during her career, but before Tuesday had never stood on the podium at the Worlds. She joined Rémi Cavagna, Cédrine Kerbaol, Bryan Coquard, Juliette Labous, and Bruno Armirail in taking silver, seven seconds behind Switzerland in Glasgow.
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Cordon-Ragot was thrilled to win a silver medal, given that a year ago, her future on and off the bike was up in the air following a stroke ahead of the Wollongong Worlds.
"For sure, if a year ago they'd tell me I'd be there, I wouldn't believe it," Cordon-Ragot said. "That's why I was so emotional and also because I was looking at some of my staff, and we had a long way to be here today.
"It was very emotional. It's the first time I'm standing on the Worlds podium, and I'm not so young anymore, and I've been here quite long."
Cordon-Ragot, who has endured two trade team collapses in the past year – B&B Hotels and Zaaf – in addition to her health issues, said that it might be both the first and last time that she can enjoy winning a medal at the World Championships, which only added to her emotions.
"It means a lot," she said. "Finally, I get my career spotlight. It's maybe the first and last time, so I really enjoyed it, and I was emotional for sure."
Cordon-Ragot's teammate Juliette Labous was another rider enjoying their first Worlds medal among the six first-timers on the French squad.
The team jumped up the standings from third after the men's run to second at the end of the 40.3km course, with Italy dropping away due to a Silvia Persico mechanical issue and Switzerland also slowing up after Marlen Reusser's crash. In the end, however, they couldn't fully close the 24-second gap to the Swiss, ending up the day seven seconds back.
Labous said later that they had done little wrong during their runs on the technical Glasgow city circuit, noting that they could walk away from the event with no regrets.
"The goal was to get a medal, so I think the silver medal was the best we could get today," Labous said. "Seven seconds isn't much, but in the end, we also can't really see where we lost it. I think we can have no regrets, and we can be proud of this medal."
