It's easy to forget that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot only returned to road racing a year ago, given the heights of her success and quick return to the upper echelons of the sport, and it will be no different on Sunday as she lines up as one of the favourites for the Tour of Flanders.
Ferrand-Prévot already achieved her primary goal last year, winning the Tour de France Femmes, and indeed taking a surprising Paris-Roubaix Femmes victory in the spring too, but this year she's dreaming bigger yet, making Flanders one of her key goals ahead of her Tour defence campaign.
The Frenchwoman rode Flanders seven times – every year – before her road hiatus, but no one quite knew what to expect when she returned in 2025 after a seven-year absence. But as she would for the rest of the season, she hit the ground running, to say the least, finishing second behind only Lotte Kopecky from an elite late move.
That very quickly proved to Ferrand-Prévot and her team that Flanders was a more than realistic goal for 2026, which was only cemented by her subsequent successes in 2025.
"For sure, with Pauline we know that we are able to win the race," Visma-Lease a Bike DS Jan Boven told Cyclingnews and L'Equipe earlier this week. "Last year, she showed that she was able to win the race, which we didn't know before, and that makes a big difference."
Finishing second on her first attempt back didn't leave Visma with too many question marks about how she can convert that into a win, as she is clearly already nearly there – the idea will largely be to race in a similar way, just hopefully one podium place better.
"She did a nice race there, the sprint maybe she can improve a bit there, but also maybe also tactics-wise we can do different things," Boven said. "But we'll see on Sunday.
"I don't think there will be a big difference from last year with Marianne and Pauline. We didn't know that Pauline was really able to race a final like that. We were maybe more focused on Marianne in a race like that, but it won't make a big difference.
"We had a few changes in the team, and I think we improved on that part also with a few strong riders like Daniek Hengeveld, and Lieke Nooijen is back, so we have a bit more power."
Visma-Lease a Bike have flown slightly under the radar this spring, with Ferrand-Prévot and Vos racing only sparingly, but the team have nonetheless grabbed some positive results with Noojen's third at Dwars door Vlaanderen, and Nienke Veenhoven taking third at Ronde van Brugge.
Ferrand-Prévot on the final podium during last year's race (Image credit: Getty Images)
Though Boven was positive about those results, he did say that "without a real leader like Marianne or Pauline, it is hard for us to race with the level" and that "we need [Pauline], for sure". Vos is also set to be back in the team after missing Milan-San Remo due to family illness.
Ferrand-Prévot has only raced once so far this year, at Strade Bianche, where teammate Marianne Vos made it into the lead group. Ferrand-Prévot was part of the chase that took an unfortunate wrong turn, finishing 29th on the day.
However, she returned to her trusted altitude camp – underlining just what a big goal Flanders is for her – and has opted to return to the cobbles just for Flanders. She's set to arrive on Thursday evening, then ride a short recon on Friday.
"She had a good preparation, after Strade she did a long time on altitude, so she is okay. But it's different from last year, then it was a bit unexpected the second spot, also for us, and now the pressure will be a bit different this year," Boven said.
Coming back in just for Flanders is perhaps unorthodox, given riders like Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser were also at attitude and raced an opener at Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday
"When I was a bike rider, I liked to race a bit more and have the feeling of the peloton, but you see in modern cycling that's different, and they jump in, and the big riders can still make nice results," Boven said.
"She showed that she can do it already many times, also on the mountain bike, so for that we don't have doubts at all."
The main difference, then, will just be the expectations, as Ferrand-Prévot will start on Sunday with all eyes on her, rather than as a slightly unknown quantity as she might have been last year.
She has said already this year that she knows she needs to go into every race ready to race like a favourite, and that seems to be the philosophy of her team, too.
"I think what she says is correct," Boven said. "It's also a bit different with the pressure and the approach to the race, but we'll act with Pauline like we can win the race."
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Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more. She has reported on the ground at all of the biggest events on the calendar, including the men's and women's Tours de France, the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a Espana, the Spring Classics and the World Championships. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.
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