Gravel World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has been forced to pull out of the inaugural UEC European Gravel Championships this weekend in Oud-Heverlee, Belgium due to a positive COVID-19 test.
This news comes just a week before she was supposed to defend her title at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Italy which she won in a two-up sprint last year against Switzerland’s Sina Frei at the event’s first-ever edition.
Her participation at the Gravel World Championships wasn’t mentioned in the post, but with only a week between now and the event, her appearance on the start line is looking less likely.
The multi-disciplined French star announced she wouldn’t appear at the racing in Belgium on Sunday, October 1 via her Instagram page, with the event set to feature other stars in the women’s race including Lorena Wiebes, Fem van Empel and Tiffany Cromwell.
“Since Les Gets nothing is going really in the right direction. I managed to push myself every time to give my best and got a good result, but last week during Test Event I started to feel tired again and no energy,” wrote Ferraind-Prevot. “2 days ago I started to feel sick, and now it seems the Covid hit me again.
“The plan was to compete this weekend at the European Gravel [Championships] but this will not happen.”
Ferrand-Prévot finished third in the MTB test event held at Elancourt behind compatriot Loana Lecomte and Laura Stigger (Austria) and seemed to be building up to the final goal of the season in Italy. However, these plans have been derailed and it is questionable if she will win a third world title in 2023.
At the multi-discipline World Championships in Scotland this past August, Ferrand-Prévot was triumphant in both the MTB cross-country and short track races, adding two more rainbow jerseys to her already extensive collection.
The Frenchwoman had opted for a gravel-focused schedule to end her season instead of competing in the last two rounds of the UCI MTB World Cup in Snowshoe, USA and Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, with Ineos Grenadiers teammate Tom Pidcock being one of the riders confirmed for racing in Snowshoe at Friday's XCC race.
Demi Vollering, Annemiek van Vleuten and Riejanne Markus were among the Dutch riders announced as having wildcards for the Gravel World Championships, with the women’s race on Saturday, October 7.
