Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will return to the road next season in the colours of Visma-Lease a Bike. The Frenchwoman has signed a three-year contract with the Dutch team.
Ferrand-Prévot has focused on her off-road career over the past five seasons, but after claiming gold in Paris last week, she indicated her desire to try to win the Tour de France Femmes. The 32-year-old has been sponsored by Ineos for the past two years, but the British outfit has never established a women’s team.
"Last winter, I was thinking about my future after the Olympics. I had been chasing an Olympic medal in mountain biking for 12 years. I have now achieved that goal. I think it's time for a new challenge in cycling,” Ferrand-Prévot said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Choosing Team Visma-Lease a Bike Women was an easy decision. The way the team works and its professional approach really appeal to me.”
Ferrand-Prévot began her professional career on a Dutch squad, spending five years with Rabobank, where she was a teammate of Marianne Vos. She was a Rabobank rider when she became world champion on the road in Ponferrada in 2014, having already won La Flèche Wallonne and placed second overall at the Giro Rosa that season.
After joining Canyon-SRAM in 2017, Ferrand-Prévot’s focus began to shift increasingly towards her off-road endeavours, and she spent 2021 and 2022 with the Team Absolute Absalon BMC mountain bike team before becoming an Ineos rider at the end of 2022 for the build-up to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
After winning multiple world titles in mountain biking as well as rainbow jerseys in cyclocross and gravel, Ferrand-Prévot is turning her attention firmly back to the road, with the Tour de France Femmes at the forefront of her ambitions.
“Women's cycling has come a long way since I left the sport,” Ferrand-Prévot said. “I can't wait to get back into the peloton. With the support of the team, I am sure I can do great things again, so I am very motivated. I want to win the Tour de France Femmes.”
Ferrand-Prévot will join a Visma-Lease a Bike roster that includes Vos and two-time cyclocross world champion Fem van Empel.
“With her Olympic gold medal, she has now completed mountain biking. I admire that she has taken the bold decision to return to the road with a clear objective: to win the Tour de France Femmes,” said Visma women's team manager Rutger Tijssen.
“We will give her time to become a road cyclist again. She will be our team leader in the Grand Tours, but she will also be able to compete in the Walloon classics.”
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage as it happens and more. Find out more.
