Even before 2026 had begun, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot made her desires for the season clear: to defend her Tour de France Femmes title, and to try to win the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Second in Flanders last year in her first time taking part in the Classics since 2018, winning Sunday's race with 12 months more racing in her legs certainly seemed possible, and Visma-Lease a Bike were clear they were here to go for the victory.
But in the end, it was the same result again in Oudenaarde: second, this time in a two-up sprint behind solo winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez).
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Despite runner-up clearly not being the result she wanted, Ferrand-Prévot was accepting of the fact that she just didn't have what it took on Sunday.
"To be honest, I did my best, the team did the best. I have nothing to regret, I was just not strong enough today to follow Demi on the Oude Kwaremont," she said. "I can only be happy with that, because I was on the limit and I was just not good enough to follow her.
"I feel quite happy to be second today but it was just impossible to do better."
Both Ferrand-Prévot and Vollering opted to train at altitude in preparation for Flanders, but the Dutchwoman opted to come back one race earlier, riding Dwars door Vlaanderen – which she nearly won – whereas Ferrand-Prévot dropped directly into the Ronde.
As a result, she did admit that she was perhaps missing a little bit of the top level needed for a race like Sunday's.
"I feel OK," she said about her post-altitude form. "For sure I missed maybe a bit of race rhythm, but I felt quite OK. I probably also missed a little bit of power on the cobblestone sections, I could feel [that], but otherwise, on the asphalt, when I had to push, I was feeling quite OK."
Despite her own possible lack of rhythm, Ferrand-Prévot praised her team's efforts in the hectic race, with riders like Lieke Nooijen in particular continuing to impress.
"It's just about staying calm and trying to enjoy the chaos. For sure also being in good position helps a lot, so for that the team did a really good job," she said.
"It's really good to be able to come back to these races and to be able to race at the front, so I'm really happy and I hope there's much more to come."
What will likely be next for the Visma leader is Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where the pressure and ambition will probably be back on for the second one-day race she circled at the start of the season.
The Tour winner will be hoping that she may react better to the longer efforts of the Ardennes, compared to the power climbs of Flanders.
"Because I've been training in altitude quite a lot now, also on the longer climbs, so I can feel that I'm a bit less explosive at the moment," she said. "Maybe better in the threshold power than really in the VO2 max. I'm really looking forward to this block of racing in the Ardennes. I think it will be good."
Before that, though, there is a small question mark over whether Ferrand-Prévot might be drafted into Paris-Roubaix at the last minute, the race she won last year. That win was a surprise in itself, given she did not even originally plan to race Roubaix, and nearly didn't start in the morning.
This year, she was due to skip the race and cede leadership back to Marianne Vos, but with Vos currently away from racing after the death of her father, it could be that the defending champion gets a late call-up.
Asked directly about the possibility of racing Roubaix, Ferrand-Prévot seemed to leave the door open to a start.
"We have to see how Marianne is feeling. For now it's just really sad, and we miss her a lot today," she said. "We have to see how she feels and make a decision."
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