This article was first publish in Issue 134 of Rouleur.

And then there were the tears. One of the most emotional moments of the 2024 Olympic Games came in the women’s mountain bike race when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot emerged to win the race. The Olympic gold medal was the one prize that had eluded someone who had otherwise virtually won all there was to win. But as the French rider cried uncontrollably, her body wracked with sobs from the moment she crossed the finish line through to the podium ceremony and beyond, it was clear that the flood of emotion went much further than any single victory.

“It kept coming out,” Ferrand-Prévot tells Rouleur. “I cried for days after. It was strange because I don’t think I cried for a whole year before the Olympics. Even when my grandfather died in May, a few months before the Olympics, I was not able to cry. I was so in my bubble, so focused. I think I held my emotions inside for so long and when I finally saw that finish line my bubble burst. I started to cry, and I couldn’t stop. Finally, it all came out.”

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot seemed destined for a career in cycling. Both her parents raced regionally where she grew up in eastern France. Her father owned a bike shop, while her mother directed a cycling school. Furthermore, success came easily. She was a child prodigy, and won four French national titles as a junior. Ironically however, she says, her parents discouraged her from racing full-time. “They saw cycling more as a sport for men because 30 years ago, women’s cycling was not what it is today. I think they would have preferred that I do some serious studies.”

She says that if she had listened to her parents, she would likely have pursued medical studies. “I like doing things that are difficult to attain, and becoming a doctor requires a lot of sacrifices and a lot of work,” she explains. Fortunately for cycling fans, of course, she did not heed her parents’ advice, although considering her desire for excellence, she would have likely made a great doctor. Instead, her goal became winning the world’s greatest bike races, be it on the road, or in-cyclocross, mountain biking or gravel, all disciplines where she has won at least one world championship title.

(Image: James Startt)

There is a certain paradox in Ferrand-Prévot. At face value, she laughs easily and appears carefree. Her dog is often by her side in her social media posts, and in one memorable post during Covid, she uploaded a picture of herself riding her home trainer poolside in her swimsuit, her own whimsical way of saying that she was making the best of a bad situation.

But there is also a more serious side, and other posts describe her single-minded focus and commitment when it comes to attaining her goals, outlining in detail the specific training and sacrifices she has made.

“Sometimes I have the impression that I become a different person when I pin a number on. It is not that I want to change into a different person, but I transcend myself,” she says. “That said, I only do it when it is necessary. That kind of focus, that kind of drive, I only have for the biggest races, for my biggest goals. I have always thought that we have a maximum amount of energy, and we cannot reach that level all the time. You must know when to use it, and how to use it in the right way at the right moment. I think that is one of the reasons I am so good in the biggest races, because I don’t try to ride at that level all the time.”

Such qualities can take riders years to acquire but the 33-year-old insists it is something that came easily for her. “Even when I first started riding and racing, I was never one to turn a training ride into a race. I have always thought it was important to save that level of energy for the races. It’s like I have been afraid of emptying my energy tank. I’ll be honest, even today, I don’t think that I do over-the-top training rides. But when I get into a race that matters, it’s a different story.”

Ferrand-Prévot’s greatest quality may be her resilience. Even before she turned professional with the Rabobank women’s team in 2012, it was clear that she possessed an abundance of talent. But numerous setbacks have hit her career over the years. A nagging sciatic nerve problem forced her off the bike on several occasions. And while she raced her first Olympic Games in 2012, it took her 12 years to finally strike gold. She was forced to drop out of the cross-country race in 2016, while a technical error and a flat dashed her chances in 2021. But she always came back from the challenges that faced her, and over the years has managed to amass no fewer than 15 world titles both on and off-road, 12 individual and three in team events.

“I think that one of my strengths is to be able to learn from my setbacks. I know how to question myself all the time,” she says. “Even when I am winning. I am always asking myself, what could I have done better? And that really helps me in difficult moments, because it allows me to understand why things are not working and to improve. That is one reason why last year, I decided to do fewer races. I didn’t want to sap my energy in races that really didn’t matter that much in the long run.”

(Image: James Startt)

“Sometimes I have the impression that I become a different person when I pin a number on. I transcend myself”

In 2020 she announced that she was virtually retiring from the road, and despite her Olympic misfortune in Tokyo in 2021, the Olympic mountain bike event remained her singular focus. In 2022, a year after her Tokyo setback, she produced perhaps her greatest season ever, winning the World Championship mountain bike titles in the short track, cross-country and marathon events as well as the first ever gravel World Championships, and the string of success continued in 2023 with two more world mountain bike titles.

As a result, when Ferrand-Prévot lined up for the Olympic mountain bike race in Yvelines, outside of Paris, on July 28, she was not only the local hero but the hands-down favourite. It was her race to lose, and the pressure was monumental. But in her fourth Olympic Games, she left little to chance, and after attacking early over the circuit in Élancourt, Ferrand-Prévot produced a masterclass in mountain biking perfection. “Those final kilometres were really bizarre,” she recalls. “I had prepared so much, both physically and mentally, and in particular, I really worked on remaining focused for the entire race. So I was in my bubble. I really tried to focus on my own ride, how I was feeling, how I was dealing with the pain or fatigue, as I tried to go as fast as I could, to pick the best lines etc. My main focus was to apply everything I had learned over the past few years. It’s funny because now that a few months have passed, I have really nice memories of the Olympics. Sometimes today, if I am having trouble falling asleep I will think back on the beauty of that race. But during the race it was a different story.”

In the days that followed the Olympic mountain bike cross-country race, when the tears finally subsided, the questions started coming, firstly from the press, but also herself. What was she going to do now? Where could she possibly go from here?

“I will be honest. I thought about retiring,” she says. “I was so focused on the Olympics. For five years, I broke down everything that could prevent me from winning the Olympics. I examined my training, my mental preparation, you name it. But as a result, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do after the Olympics. I hadn’t asked myself that question. But when I did, I knew that I wasn’t finished with this life of racing,” she says. “That said, I didn’t see myself starting to prepare for another cycle of mountain bike racing. I certainly didn’t have the energy to think about another four-year Olympic cycle. I had put too much energy into the 2024 Games, and I don’t think I could have done it this well again. It would have been hard to repeat. But I realised that I was still too motivated, that I loved what I was doing too much to stop. There have been hard moments in my career, but I felt too fortunate to be able to do this for a living, to be able to live all of these experiences, to stop yet. We have the most beautiful job in the world and I wasn’t ready to enter into a normal life.”

(Image: James Startt)

Her answer came in road racing. Although she exited road racing barely five years ago, there was no women’s Paris-Roubaix and no Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift at that time. The sport has evolved radically, and in its radical transformation, Ferrand-Prévot

found new goals and new dreams. Obviously with her wealth of off-road experience, she would be a natural favourite for Paris-Roubaix, but that woman who had always been attracted to doing things that are difficult to attain was looking past the cobbles of northern France, and already had her sights pinned on the sport’s top prize, the Tour de France.

According to Ferrand-Prévot, there was only one team that she saw fit to accompany her latest challenge: Visma-Lease A Bike, whose team structure goes back to her early years with Rabobank. “I started my career at Rabobank and had a great time. I spoke with other teams, but Visma made total sense. I felt like I was back with Rabobank,” she says.

By all accounts, the feeling was mutual with the Dutch formation. “From the moment we heard that she wanted to return to the road, for us there was only one option, and that was that she was going to ride for us,” said Rutger Tijssen, the Visma women’s manager. “The reason we wanted to work with Pauline again is firstly that she is an outstanding athlete who has a real clear goal for what she wants to attain. For us that is a challenge, and it gives us a goal to work for as well.”

Ferrand-Prévot was a huge signing for the Dutch squad, as she has earned a reputation as not only one of the most talented cyclists in the sport today, but also one of the most demanding and professional. And she has a way of leaving an indelible impression on those who have worked with her. “The one thing I am really going to miss is working with Pauline,” Kurt Bogaerts said at a pre-season training camp with the Q36.5 team. Like Ferrand-Prévot, Bogaerts left the Ineos team at the end of 2024, but for two years they worked closely together, as Bogaerts was the team’s special coach to Tom Pidcock and Ferrand-Prévot in their Olympic mountain bike preparation. And Bogaerts only has positive things to say about his time with her. “She is a very special athlete and person. I will miss being part of her transition to the Tour de France Femmes and returning to the road. She has big potential.”

“ I love racing in France. And I love winning in France. One reason I want to return to my best level on the road is to see what I can do in the Tour”

Visma may be the perfect fit for Ferrand-Prévot. Not only is she reconnecting with some of her old team-mates and staff, but currently the team has no real Grand Tour contender.

Ferrand-Prévot’s return to the team also ignites an exciting dynamic with the squad’s longtime leader Marianne Vos. When Ferrand-Prévot turned professional, Vos was the team’s biggest star. Today she is often hailed as the greatest champion in the history of women’s cycling, but at 37 she is no longer a Grand Tour contender, though she picked up three Giro Rosa titles earlier in her career.

(Image: James Startt)

“Having Pauline back on the team is very exciting,” says Vos. “Of course I have known Pauline for a very long time now. I knew her as a team-mate, and I have followed her career on the mountain bike as well. It is fantastic to have her back, it is fantastic to have someone with her dedication and determination on the women’s team. Pauline is somebody who knows what she wants and knows how to execute things to get the best out of her performance. Today, she might be more mature, but it is the same Pauline. We are going to be able to work together in many ways. We are very complementary, and together we can be stronger.”

Ferrand-Prévot’s return to the road is exciting for many fans, and almost instantly the Tour de France Femmes has another contender. And at the team’s pre-season presentation near Alicante, they were already talking about a potential podium performance in her first year. But there was caution on both sides as her transition back to the road, let alone to the Tour de France, has no fixed timeline.

“So much has changed in the past 10 years. Races that never existed before. The level on the team is so much higher,” she says. “So the first step is to get accustomed to racing on the road again. And that is not something you learn in just a few months. In terms of training, I don’t think that the distances will be a problem because, even for MTB, I trained in high volumes. Also, an MTB race is about an hour and a half, full gas, something that is not unlike going up a long climb, so I don’t think the physical transition will be that difficult. But things like eating on a bike, I haven’t done that really. When I was racing on the road, we rarely ate in the races. Team tactics have also changed a lot since I raced on the road. The tactics are much more like men’s racing today. Those are just some of the things I have to learn, and that is going to take time. It’s important that I go step by step.”

Tijssen agrees, “All transitions take time. Pauline will decide how fast those changes take place. But with athletes at Pauline’s level, they have an ability to adapt that is insane. What might take the average human being a month to do, someone like Pauline can do it in two weeks. Her transition will be fast, but even so, we don’t know how fast it will be in relation to what is needed. But already in the first couple of months since we started working together again, since just November, there has been a big transition, be it her position on the bike, the way she is executing her training… She is probably making transitions faster than even I am aware of.”

At 33, Ferrand-Prévot has little time to waste. Time is not on her side. But in signing with Visma-Lease A Bike for three years, she has given herself a realistic window to reach her full potential in the Tour. “My goal is to be the best I can in the Tour in the next three years,” she says. “The fact that there is now a Tour de France Femmes provided a real motivation. I love racing in France. And I love winning in France. Winning the Olympic Games in Paris was unforgettable. And one reason I want to return to my best level on the road is to see what I can do in the Tour.”