'So far, everything is going according to plan' – Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on track after first three Tour de France Femmes stages but now it's time to head into the great unknown

So far, so good may be the most apt way of summing up Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's Tour de France Femmes to this point given the Visma-Lease a Bike rider, who is now far from the unknown quantity she was on return last year, is looking well set for a spirited title defence in the mountains. But first there is a looming test in the one area where an element of mystery still remains – the individual time trial.

The path to the 21km test against the clock on stage 4 has been relatively smooth, even after an unexpectedly explosive start which carried through to Monday as the race moved from Switzerland to France. There may have been a key GC day ahead, but there was no sitting quietly to conserve ahead of the time trial battle.

"Of course we knew it was going to be a tough stage, but I didn’t expect it to explode like this," said Ferrand-Prévot's teammate Femke de Vries, who was active in pursuit of the moves. "With the time trial tomorrow, I thought most riders wouldn’t take too many risks today. But the race really came alive on the final climb, and from that moment onwards it was all hands on deck."

As Sigrid Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) rode toward a solo victory, with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in pursuit, the action among the riders aiming for a high finish overall unfolded on the last climb of the day, even though it was a short category 4 effort that came at 25km from the finish line.

Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) immediately attacked as the road kicked up, with Ferrand-Prévot among those quickly on her wheel. Then Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) delivered a fierce acceleration which momentarily appeared to put the defending champion into difficulty, though she quickly made her way back into the group of favourites which had split away. Still the select group ultimately swelled before the line, joined by another bunch of riders which included Ferrand-Prévot's teammate, Marianne Vos, who took third..

Ferrand-Prévot finished tenth on stage 3 while rolling over the line among that first group, which means that after three stages she remains well-placed overall. The French rider is in the main group of favourites, which sits 2:10 behind the stage 3 break winner Haugset, six seconds behind Le Court-Pienaar and four seconds behind Vollering, who grabbed an advantage by taking the time bonus for third on stage 1.

However, the big question now is what the gaps will look like after the 21 kilometre individual time trial on stage 4. Based on recent results, the advantage among the overall contenders on Tuesday naturally falls to the riders who were on the podium of the most recent World Championships time trial, Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) and Vollering.

Just how Ferrand-Prévot may fare when lining up against these rider is, however, one of the great unknowns of this year's Tour. While the Visma-Lease a Bike rider once may have been the French national time trial champion and lined up in a race against the clock with some of her current rivals – like Van der Breggen and Niewiadoma – that was more than a decade ago.

Since her return to the road at the start of last season, Ferrand-Prévot has only delivered one time trial in competition and that doesn't really deliver any indication of her individual prowess given it was in a team effort at the Vuelta Femenina last year, where the squad came in at the middle of the field.

Still, there is no doubting that Ferrand-Prévot is among that small group of competitors who seems to be able to consistently rise to the occasion through focussed training, and there is no doubt that the rider has done plenty of that since it was announced late last year that there would be a time trial in the route of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes.

"I really like this kind of challenge, so I took it very seriously, and I think I did my homework quite well," Ferrand-Prévot, who made time trial efforts a regular part of her routine and tested herself on simulations of the stage 4 effort, said in a pre-race media conference.

The rider – who has an Olympic gold medal in mountain biking and also in 2015 simultaneously held the world cyclocross, mountain bike and road titles – is nothing if not adaptable when new cycling challenges are presented. Still, the lack of recent time trial competition presents an unknown.

"So far, everything is going according to plan," said sports director Jos van Emden in a team media release. "Pauline is in a good position, and tomorrow we will aim for the best possible result in the time trial.

"We are not focused on the others, but purely on ourselves. The goal is to ride as hard and as well as possible. In the end, we will see what the result is."

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