Will the next French rider to win the Tour de France be Pauline Ferrand-Prévot? Embracing expectation and pressure in the hunt for the yellow jersey

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has not raced her bike in more than 10 weeks after pulling out of the Vuelta a España due to an ongoing ankle injury sustained in the spring that required additional hospital treatment, several rounds of antibiotics, and then there was unexpected illness.

While the injury wreaked havoc on her late-spring and early-summer racing campaign, the Olympic Champion and Paris-Roubaix winner says she is back to full health. Instead of returning to the peloton, she moved to altitude for hours upon hours of training in the mountains and now Ferrand-Prévot is ready to attempt a yellow-jersey coup in her first participation in the Tour de France Femmes. If she manages this feat, she would be the first French rider to do so since Bernard Hinault won the men's title in 1985 and Jeannie Longo won the women's title in 1989.

"I'm feeling good and happy to be here finally. I haven't raced since the Vuelta, which is two months and two weeks, quite a long time. This is the main goal of my season. I'm doing well," Ferrand-Prévot told select journalists at a roundtable press conference just two days before the Grand Départ in Brittany this weekend.

"I took a break from the Vuelta to heal from my small injury from the crash at Strade Bianche. After that, I began preparing for the Tour, which is my main goal for the season, and I wanted to be 100% ready for this race. Here we are, and I'm quite curious."

Ferrand-Prévot injured her ankle while racing Strade Bianche, her first one-day race upon returning to road racing after retiring from an incredibly successful mountain bike career that saw her win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer.

She said that while it was initially a minor injury and of no great concern, it led to an unexpected infection that flared up and required ongoing treatment throughout most of the Spring Classics.

Even though she went on to finish third at the Strade Bianche, fourth (relegated to 12th) at Milan-San Remo, second at the Tour of Flanders and captured a prestigious win at Paris-Roubaix, the symptoms from her injury and general fatigue caught up, and she was forced to abandon the Vuelta a España in early May.

"Way too long [recovery time]. I had three rounds of antibiotics, and two times to the hospital to clean it. Every time I stopped taking the antibiotics, I got sick, so something was wrong. The first time I was sick was after San Remo, and before Roubaix, I was a bit surviving, and I was tired and not feeling 100%.

"I kept going like this, which was quite stupid, and during the Vuelta we decided to rest and to completely heal this injury," she said, confirming that taking a complete break from racing and training helped her fully recover and then refocus on her plans for racing during the summer.

"I had to take a rest because I was tired. Also, when you keep training, the body is not really healing. It doesn't make sense to stop the Vuelta and continue training, so I stopped training and then [later] built up again. We had quite a lot of time, so it was a good period to take this break and to prepare for the second half of the season."

Back in the bunch

It is no secret that Ferrand-Prévot has set a target to win the Tour de France, at least once, during her three-year contract with Visma-Lease a Bike. She stated that she bought a home in Andorra, so that she could fully focus on living and training at altitude, all in preparation for her home Grand Tour.

"I really liked this part of the season where you build up, go to altitude, not racing but training super hard, and for me it is the best process and I really like to do that, so now I am happy to race and to see how I can do," said Ferrand-Prévot, who, except for the UAE Tour and part of the Vuelta this year, has not competed in a stage race since 2018.

Although she hasn't raced a full road season in seven years, outside of competing at the French Road Championships in 2019 and 2021, Ferrand-Prévot has been a key rider to watch in almost every event she has lined up at since her return to road racing. She also has the history and experience to back up a strong Tour de France.

She made history in the 2014-2015 season at the age of 23 when she became the first cyclist to hold world titles in the three disciplines simultaneously. She won the elite women's road race world title in 2014 in Ponferrada, the XCO cross-country world title in 2015 in Vallnord, and the cyclocross world title in 2015 in Tabor. Since then, she has amassed a total of 15 elite world titles across road, mountain bike, cyclocross and gravel.

In stage racing, Ferrand-Prévot has won the overall title at Emakumeen Bira and finished second overall at the Giro d'Italia Women, two of the biggest stage races in the world for women in 2014, while racing for Rabobank-Liv alongside then- and now-teammate Marianne Vos as well as Anna van der Breggen. She competed for Rabobank-Liv for six seasons, from 2012 to 2016, before moving to Canyon-SRAM for four seasons, from 2017 to 2020.

Now she is focused on the Tour de France, a race that successfully relaunched in 2022. She said her road racing plans this year, barring her injury, have gone well, with a process that intentionally included the Spring Classics to regain some racing experience in the peloton before the big Tour.

"For me, the main goal of this season is this race, and I just wanted to do the Classics to be back in the bunch and experience more hectic racing. I did quite well at Flanders and Roubaix, and I enjoyed this time," she said.

"It is also the beauty of the sport. We don't know how I can be in nine days of racing. It is also good to discover my limits and to see what I am able to do. I prepare myself in the best way possible, so we will see.

"It is a long-term process. I have signed for three years with the team, and it's a year of learning. I'm allowed to do mistakes this year, in order to not do them next year. We have to see not only this year but the process in the full three years."

Training on the Col de Madeleine

The fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes will take place from July 26 to August 3, featuring nine days of racing. It will begin with a Grand Départ in Brittany, featuring two flat stages, three hilly stages, two medium-mountain stages, and conclude with two back-to-back high mountain stages, including climbs over the Col de Madeleine, Col de Joux Plane, and a mountaintop finale at Châtel.

Ferrand-Prévot admitted that she has spent some of her training camps visiting the Col de Madeleine, which will mark the centrepiece of this year's Tour de France.

"Twice. I wanted to see it two times because you can see it better if you see it more often. In MTB, I'm used to knowing everything about the lap; every corner, I also like to know where I am riding," she said.

"I think it's important for the Col de la Madeleine because it is a super long climb and you need to be focused for an hour and a half, so you need some tricks to stay focused. It's why I spent the second time, to just do at a good pace and take my marks, see where I can go faster or recover or to keep my own tempo for such a long period."

Ferrand-Prévot said she had made three significant changes to her training between the Spring Classics and her preparations for the Tour, which included reducing her weight, moving to altitude and climbing daily.

"The first thing is that I wanted to lose weight. I am a bit lighter than in the Classics season, where you need to climb for two to three minutes, and you have to have some power. Now, for the long climbs, I need good watts/kg, so I had to lose some weight. I am quite familiar with it because it is the way I've been doing it for the season," she said.

"When I like to have one goal, I like to have a race weight for this event. I know that I can't be super skinny all season long, and I don't find it very healthy, so I prefer that when I have a goal to lose weight slowly, to be at the good weight for the good moment.

"Weight was one factor, the second was training at altitude to do long climbs. A lot of threshold work and climbing. I also bought a place at altitude in Andorra to spend a lot of time in the mountains, to climb every day, and to get used to climbing because it is not the same as when you are on the flats; it's a full process, but I love it."

Christian Prudhomme predicts a French woman to win next Tour de France title

The first version of the women's event was held in 1955, preceding the original women's Tour de France stage race, which ran from 1984 to 1989; the last three of these were won by French cyclist Jeannie Longo.

While there have been multiple versions of this race over the years, it has ultimately evolved into the modern Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, which has taken place since 2022 with much success and popularity, boasting a live audience of 23.2 million people.

As one of the greatest (and versatile) cyclists of all time, Ferrand-Prévot has understandably placed her new road racing targets on winning the yellow jersey as part of her illustrious career achievements. After claiming Olympic gold and Paris-Roubaix, she is looking forward to testing her limits under the glare of the Tour de France spotlight.

"It is why I am looking forward to racing here. It's my home country. It is very special because it feels special to race in France, and the Tour de France is famous. If you ask people in the street, 'What is cycling?' they will say, 'Tour de France.'"

"For me, it is a dream. I remember saying to mother that I wanted to be a boy because I wanted to do the Tour de France, and now that it is possible with women, I have said I want to do it, and it is why I came back to [racing] on the road; to be able to do the Tour de France.

"I like the fact that I have one goal for the season and to really prepare for that, to do the full process, and the full altitude camp and everything. I like the process of having one goal and to commit 100% for it."

Asked about the success of the new women's Tour de France in just four years, Ferrand-Prévot said, "I think it is just the beginning of what women's cycling can do, and has already been a great beginning. Extending the racing to nine days was a good thing. I'm looking forward to being part of this development, too."

The last French rider to win the men's Tour de France was Bernard Hinault, who won in 1985, while Longo won three editions of the original women's Tour from 1987 to 1989.

During the roundtable press conference, one journalist cited men's Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme as having told the media that, 'The next Tour de France winner from France will be a woman'.

There are many strong French riders in the peloton, including Juliette Labous, Évita Music, Marion Bunel, and Cédrine Kerbaol, all of whom are contenders for the yellow jersey this year.

When asked if it could be her, Ferrand-Prévot said, "Good question, you have to ask Christian. I'm feeling in good shape and I had a great preparation, but we also have to stay realistic. It's my first stage race in 10 years, so I also have to get used to that and to the nine days of racing and the climbs. I signed for the team for three years, which gives me the time to build, learn and grow together with the team."

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