“She scares everyone.” Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s big return to the road caused a sensation at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich and offered a considerable advantage to the French team. But the Olympic mountain bike champion first assures that she wants to play “collectively”.
Thursday evening, in the small Swiss village of Dürnten, where the Blues took up residence, everything revolved around the gold medalist from Paris, two days before the road race.
Three years after her last road race, at the French Championships in Epinal, ten years exactly after her world road title in Spain and two months after her Olympic coronation in mountain biking, the queen is about to return to her first love and the simple prospect of seeing her again on the asphalt puts French cycling in turmoil.
Paul Brousse is still in shock. “It happened after the Olympic Games. A lot of coaches would have liked to have had this phone call. I didn’t have to think for very long. We’re talking about an extraordinary athlete,” emphasizes the Bleues coach. .
“I’m the one who called Paul, I’m glad he said yes,” replies “PFP” who announced in August that she was returning to the road in 2025 under the colors of the Visma team. Lease a bike with the aim of “winning the Tour de France in the next three years”.
– “Not frustrating” –
Very quickly, the idea of starting again from these Worlds in Zurich gained ground. “I looked at the circuit and I saw that it could suit me. But I’m first here to get my bearings for next year, to see where I am and what I have to work on during winter,” she said.
Her big return could be badly received by certain teammates who have been there for years and have serious references. There are three of them to have finished in the Top 10 of the last Tour de France with Evita Muzic 4th, Cedrine Kerbaol 6th, and Juliette Labous 9th.
“No, it’s not frustrating, swears Evita Muzic, because we’re going to talk more about women’s cycling and the French team. And she deserves it. She has an extraordinary track record. It’s obviously an added asset for us .”
“It’s really good for us, it’s moving upwards,” agrees Juliette Labous.
Aware of having to integrate into a collective, “PFP”, who worked alone on the mountain bike, assures that she will have “no problem working for any girl in the group, that’s sure and certain . I’m really here to support the team.”
– “So much the better if I scare” –
“I am aware that the level has evolved and it is up to me to get back up to speed. In terms of watts I think I am among the best. But I can progress in terms of placement but also in nutrition. In mountain biking, it lasts between 1h20 and 1h30, it’s different from a 4-hour race. I don’t think I’ll be at the level of Juliette or Evita at the end of the race”, adds the woman who has no less than fifteen world titles in all of them. cycling disciplines (road, cyclo-cross, mountain biking, gravel).
If the 32-year-old from Rémoise plays it modest, her talent, her aura and her immense career raise great hopes in the French camp.
“The look of the opponents will be different, it’s a big question mark for the other nations. Everyone is afraid of what Pauline can do on Saturday”, underlines Paul Brousse who would see “PFP” in a role of free electron ready to detonate the race.
“She’s clearly scary and that can help us,” adds Muzic.
“If we have to attack at the start of the race why not?” replies Ferrand-Prévot, “in good shape” after five weeks of altitude training in Andorra. But here again, she first tries to keep a low profile, saying: “All the better if I’m scary, that will leave more room for my teammates.”
jk/bvo
