Her Olympic gold medal was still burning when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot imagined a surprise, which would set the cycling autumn on fire. On vacation, she? Especially not. A few days after her consecration in the mountain bike event at the Paris Games, on July 28 in Elancourt (Yvelines), she had an idea. “A little surprised”Paul Brousse, the coach of the French Cycling Federation, receives his call. The mountain biker, “very motivated”tells him he wants to return to road competitions. Immediately: “PFP”, its diminutive, applies for participation in the world championships, scheduled two months later.
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Of which act. Saturday September 28, at 12:45 p.m., she is at the start of the event contested on a very hilly course of 154 kilometers around Zurich (Switzerland). “It’s a little bet, both for her and for us! » recognizes Paul Brousse. The Olympic champion also declared that she would seek a victory in the Tour de France Femmes from the 2025 season. With this in mind, she will leave her current British team, Ineos Grenadiers, to join the Dutch structure Visma-Lease a Bike. But she doesn’t plan to wait until the next competitions in February to test herself.
The national coach of the women’s road team took fifteen days “to think”. How can you say no to this 32-year-old cyclist, crowned fifteen times world champion in four disciplines, on the road, in mountain biking (individual or relay), in cyclo-cross and in the latest addition, gravel, which is run on the paths and across fields? “PFP” fully meets the criteria, starting with the “International experience” box.
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Much to lose
At the end of September, the person left her home on the Côte d’Azur for the greasy drizzle of Zurich. She has a lot to lose in this rapid return to the premier discipline of cycling, where she was already world champion in 2014, winning after a massive sprint on the Ponferrada circuit (Spain). “PFP” has not run a national road event since 2021 and, at the level international, since 2018… The “little bet” is an understatement.
Tuesday September 24 in the evening, in a hotel in the Swiss countryside, a good hour from Lake Zurich where the finish line will be drawn, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot exchanged a few words with a regular from the French team. Audrey Cordon-Ragot, soon to retire, eleven times French road champion, wanted to pass on her encouragement and a little advice: “Go ahead, don’t waste time!” Don’t expect respect from your competitors, especially from the younger generation! For young people, it doesn’t matter what your record is and what you represent in cycling. Don’t be nice to them! They have fangs and will not spare you. »
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