'I still have plenty of races I didn't win yet' – Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's road racing ambitions won't end with Tour de France Femmes triumph

The latest addition to Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's glittering palmarès is complete, the Frenchwoman soloing home to secure a dominant Tour de France Femmes victory high in the Alps at Châtel.

Hers was a victory built at even higher altitude, soaring away from the rest of the peloton on the road to the summit of the Col de la Madeleine and taking a two-and-a-half-minute lead going into the final day.

Now, the Olympic mountain bike champion, Paris-Roubaix winner, and multi-disciplinary world champion can also call herself a Tour de France winner – the first since the 1980s.

Two mountain stage victories to round off the race sealed the deal, the 33-year-old following on from Maëva Squiban's two solo efforts to ensure French domination of the latter half of the race.

Only Ferrand-Prévot didn't have it all her own way during the final stage, and come the final, gradual ascent up to Châtel, she even had doubts about going on the attack.

"This morning, we discussed with the directeur sportif about the tactics, because I said, 'Maybe it would also be good to win in yellow,'" Ferrand-Prévot said in the post-race press conference.

"On the last climb, he said, 'You can decide if you want to go or not.' I didn't know, because I wanted to enjoy the last kilometres of this Tour in yellow. When Demi attacked, I went, and I just counter-attacked because I said, 'I need to do something because I didn't ride much all day long, I was just following.'

"So, after my attack, I said 'OK, now I can't turn back anymore and just have to go full gas until the finish line.' So, I didn't really enjoy the last kilometres, but afterwards it was worth it."

Earlier in the day, Ferrand-Prévot, or Po-Po as she is affectionately known by her fans, had given home fans a scare, missing a split in the peloton on the first downhill of the day into Sallanches.

SD Worx-Protime may have been busy attacking en masse up front, but 106km and all three of the day's climbs remained up the road. There was no need to panic, with Ferrand-Prévot's teammates dropping back to help.

"It was a crazy race. Right from the start, it was full gas, and I made a small mistake in the first downhill," she said. "I was a bit too far back, and someone left a gap, and I was in the second group, so I had to call all my teammates to wait for me and to bring me back. I felt so ashamed.

"It was a good reminder that I had to stay in a good position at the front, and afterwards, I was quite in control. But yes, you never know, because in the downhill was so fast, it was really scary. They wanted to drop Sarah in the downhill, and then they just went crazy, so I had to follow sometimes. I was a bit on the limit. It was quite, quite tricky."

In the end, Ferrand-Prévot and her team overcame that minor scare, and, come the time to ride through the town of Châtel itself, she was busy jumping away from Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, and Niamh Fisher-Black and onwards up the final 6km to glory.

Her wins, the stage and the overall, count as the 14th and 15th of her road career to date, with her triumphs stretching back to national time trial triumphs and La Flèche Wallonne over a decade ago.

Next, she'll set her sights on more big races, mentioning several spring Classics by name while also pondering whether she'd ever return to the Tour.

"I still have plenty of races I didn't win yet," Ferrand-Prévot said. "I would like to win the Tour of Flanders, I would like to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège, for example, these kinds of races.

"But now, because the preparation was so hard for the Tour de France, now I don't really see myself doing the same again.

"Maybe it's just because I'm tired and I want to have a small break, but I still have two years on my contract and I still love what I'm doing, so I just want to continue because it's my life, you know?

"I really like what I'm doing with this team. So, for sure, we will find plenty of goals and I will try to win as many races as possible."

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