Pauline Ferrand-Prevot opened up about her 10th place finish in the women's cross country mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympics. The reigning world champion felt she was unfairly criticized by the media for her mishap during the race and said the French native was proud to have placed in the top 10.

"I'm disappointed, but not depressed. The media takes pleasure in beating down athletes and there are quite a few 'Mr. Know-it-alls' out there, so I want to talk about yesterday's race," Ferrand-Prevot posted on Instagram on Wednesday.

"I am proud to say that I came into this competition at 100%. I have never been in better shape in my career than I was this week. I have never felt happier to be in a tournament like this, surrounded by top teams and staff. But yes, elite sports are not thankless. If it were, it would be too easy."

Ferrand-Prevot switched teams earlier this year from Canyon-SRAM, where she also competed in road and cyclo-cross, to Absolut-Absalon-BMC to set her sights on the women's cross country event at the Tokyo Olympics.

She competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics on both road and mountain bike, but she told Cycling News that she was "terrible" and also said that she "didn't get any forgiveness" in the mountain bike race: I was a "DNF."

France started the women's cross-country competition in Tokyo with two medal contenders. Alongside Ferrand-Prevot was compatriot Roana Lecomte, who had been undefeated on the World Cup circuit until this competition. Lecomte finished sixth in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Tropical Storm Nepartak dumped heavy rain on the course overnight, shortening the race by one lap from six to five and changing the course at the last minute. The rock garden route was rerouted and ramps were installed at the drops. The total length of the circuit was reduced from 4.1 km to 3.85 km.

Swiss Yolanda Neff and Ferrand-Prevot led the race from the start lap; Neff, who won the gold medal with a brilliant performance by the Swiss team that took all three podium places, criticized Ferrand-Prevot for what she felt was a dangerous move down the slope. Ferrand-Prevot then fell on the uphill rock garden.

Ferrand-Prevot also revealed that although she was able to pull away from the second- and third-placed Swiss athletes on the course (Sheena Fry won silver and Linda Indergand won bronze), she suffered a flat tire, effectively eliminating her from the medal standings.

"Yesterday I got a good start and felt I could fight for the title. Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the start and slipped on the rocks, losing a lot of time. After that, I regrouped to try for a medal and just as I was moving up to second place, I got a puncture in my rear wheel. No excuses. I took the wrong line," Ferran-Prevot wrote. [Still, I was able to finish the race in tenth place. It wasn't the position I wanted at the start, but that mistake cost me a lot of money. Still, I was able to finish the race in tenth place.

Ferrand-Prevot said she was proud of her result and said she would continue to dream of winning gold one day.

"In any case, deep down I know that. So I'm proud of myself, I'm still smiling, and I'm going to keep my dream of becoming Olympic champion in the back of my mind a little longer and fight to defend my World and European Champion titles - just thinking about cycling brings tears to my eyes, "After Rio. "

"I don't want to go through another episode of 'After Rio,'" Ferran-Prevot wrote.

"I want to do what makes me happy and live happily ever after. What makes me happy today is that I have found the strength to smile even after the worst race imaginable...... Being able to smile with my 21-year-old teammate, a rising star in the mountain biking world who finished 6th in his first Olympics...... Being able to smile about all the good moments to be experienced...... To be able to smile about this day we have been given: ......"

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