A process for installing and tensioning a brace having a free bearing, the brace having a bundle of individual elements made of steel and surrounded by plastic jackets wherein ends of the individual elements are anchored by wedges in an anchoring plate supported by a building structure, the process comprising
- tensioning the individual elements in a longitudinal direction,
- preventing the plastic jacket of each individual element from moving in the longitudinal direction by a stop formed by an annular shoulder surrounding the element in an anchoring area, and
- thereby axially compressing the plastic jacket and exposing a portion of the individual element.