And that’s three. On Sunday 24 September, the Paris 2024 OCOG organised its third test event of the year, a cross-country mountain bike competition on the future Olympic course, laid out on the Elancourt hill in the Yvelines département. Designed by the South African Nick Floros, who is already in charge of the circuits for the Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 Games, the track was reconnoitred by the competitors on Friday 23 September, before a training session the following day. On the day of the competition, Sunday, the OCOG recorded the presence of more than 3,000 spectators along the track. There will be 15,000 spectators for the Olympic events on 28 and 29 July 2024. In addition to the sporting results, which included two French victories – Loana Lecomte in the women’s race and Victor Koreztky in the men’s race – Paris 2024 and the International Cycling Union (UCI) took the opportunity to study the behaviour of the track and its technical areas (jumps, scree slopes, mikado, banked turns….) as the mountain bikers passed by. In the light of these observations, SOLIDEO will make the necessary adjustments over the coming months. The test event also provided an opportunity to put public transport access to the site to the test in a real competition situation, with an increase in the number of train and bus lines, the digital ticketing model, security control technologies, on-site catering and the movement of medical teams. No fewer than 300 volunteers were mobilised over the three days of the test event.
