If there were any doubts about how Pauline Ferrand-Prévot would fare on her return to road racing after a hiatus of six years, there shouldn’t be anymore. At a dusty Strade Bianche, ‘PFP’ was aggressive, embodied French panache, and was gutsy – picking herself up off the floor after a crash and then riding to third place behind winner Demi Vollering and the season’s other returnee, Anna van der Breggen. It wasn’t a victory, but it was the next best thing.
A former world champion in four different disciplines but who hasn’t competed full-time on the road since 2018, Ferrand-Prévot has ditched her mountain bike has joined Visma-Lease a Bike on a three-year deal, with the ultimate ambition of winning the Tour de France Femmes. But aged 33, with more than half-a-decade away from a women’s peloton that is almost unrecognisable from when she was last a member, there was and is no guarantee that the Frenchwoman would easily assimilate back into life in the Women’s WorldTour. But have no doubt – she’s going to have no problems. “I’m on a good way, I don’t think I am 100%, but I felt really good today,” she said after the finish in Siena. “I know I’m not in top shape yet, but this is also a good thing.”
Image: Alessandra Bucci
What was most impressive about Ferrand-Prévot’s performance in Tuscany was not her finishing result in the context of her fall, but how she took the race to her competitors. She may be confident about her return to the road scene, but neither is she naïve: Vollering is the best rider in the pack, and Van der Breggen has already shown enough to suggest she’ll be a thorn in Vollering’s side all season. For Ferrand-Prévot to make her mark, she had to be clever. So she was.
“When I saw Mavi García went [in a breakaway with 40km to go] I said I also needed to be with her. I said it’s better to start the tough climb with a bit of an advantage,” she said, pointing out that mano-a-mano she probably can’t get the better of the aforementioned duo just yet. That’s experience, a wise head making sensible tactical decisions. “I rode in the middle zones and then I said at least I won’t have a sleepy feeling because sometimes when you don’t do anything you need to wake up, so in the end I think it was a good choice and I didn’t spend too much energy in the break.” As the leading group exited one gravel section and swooped around a left bend, Ferrand-Prévot came a cropper, sliding across the road before remounting. It was her only mistake all day. “I did a stupid crash and this was my fault,” she said.
Image: Tornanti
She insisted it didn’t negatively impact the rest of her race, and she was seen walking fine hours later, but once Vollering and Van der Breggen bridged across to the front group with 19km remaining, the game was over. “It was a few metres at the top of the climb,” she said of the gap to her other podium colleagues when they attacked on Le Tolfe, “but already a few metres were too much. I couldn’t bridge the gap. Today they were stronger. I need to work on that, and next time I need to be straight on the wheel if I want to play for the win. Maybe I over did it in the breakaway but I didn’t know how I was compared to them, so I thought maybe it was better for me to have a bit of an advantage to start the last climb. In the end, when I saw Demi and Anna were too far away, I just tried to focus on the podium spot and I think it’s a good day for us and a good beginning of the season.”
Buoyed and convinced that her return to road racing isn’t going to pose too many settling-in issues, Ferrand-Prévot will now focus on Milano-Sanremo, Amstel Gold and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, hilly one-day races that are suited to her repertoire of skills. Vollering seems above the rest of the competition for now, but there’s a Frenchwoman without a road win for nigh on 10 years breathing down her neck. “I think it’s just a matter of confidence,” she smiled when asked what it will take to close the small gap. “I didn’t race at this level on the road for a long, long time, so I also need to find my confidence again and believe in myself. Maybe it’s five metres or 10 metres, but mentally I now know I can be with the best so I need to believe in that.”
Cover image: Tornanti
