Evgeniia LOPAREVA / Geoffrey BRISSAUD | Ice Dance Free Dance | Cup of China 2025

Well, it's a beautiful program, that's for sure. And it needed to be good because the pressure really was on for these two. They handled it well. I think it was a good response. Evgenia Loporeva, Jeffrey Brizot for France. Their challenge for a medal here at the Cup of China. Well, these two made it into the Grand Prix finals last year. They were bronze medalists in Skate Canada. They won the Grand Prix de France in Angers. And they finished in 6th place in the finals. It's important as well for these two to send a message to the teams that competed last week. Remember, Laila Fear and Lewis Gibson who finished in 2nd place. They got 125.86 in their free dance. And that stunning performance from Laurence Fournier-Boudry and Guillaume Cizeron for France. Got them at 133 points. I don't think many teams are going to get close to that, if any, but we'll see. But it's important for these two to get 120 if they possibly can. European Championships last year, they got 124.01. That's when they won the silver medal. Could they get close to it early on in the season? They only need 109 points to go into the lead, so you're pretty sure they're going to do that. I think they've done enough to stave off the challenge from Olivia Smart and Tim Deek who lead at the moment. Anxious moments though for them. So can they get close to 120 points? Even Alison Reid and Sanyos Ambrulovicius last week won 20.27. Yes, not quite 120, but 118.98. It is the season's best again for these two. So a job well done.