Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s long-rumored deal to join Visma-Lease a Bike is a rumor no more. The newly crowned Olympic mountain bike champion has signed a three-year deal to join the Dutch squad starting in 2025, where she will aim to pursue general classification success at the Tour de France Femmes.
“Last winter, I was thinking about my future after the Olympics,” Ferrand-Prévot said in announcing the news. “I had been chasing an Olympic medal in mountain biking for 12 years. I have now achieved that goal. I think it’s time for a new challenge in cycling.”
The 32-year-old Frenchwoman has spent the past two seasons as the lone woman in the Ineos Grenadiers organization, during which time she has won world titles in both cross-country and short track cross-country MTB in addition to her Olympic medal. The mountain bike has been her central focus for several years now, but she emerged as a star across multiple disciplines a decade ago.
In a particularly impressive 2014 campaign, she won La Flèche Wallonne and then won the Road World Championships in autumn. The following winter and summer she won world titles in cyclocross and on the mountain bike, becoming the first rider in history to hold all three titles at the same time. She focused more and more heavily on MTB in the ensuing seasons, racing lighter and lighter road campaigns, and since 2018 her only appearances on the road have been at the 2019 and 2021 French National Championships.
In other words, Ferrand-Prévot is certainly no stranger to the road, though she will be returning to a different road racing scene than the one she raced in several years ago.
“Women’s [road] cycling has come a long way since I left the sport,” Ferrand-Prévot said. “I can’t wait to get back into the peloton. With the support of the team, I am sure I can do great things again, so I am very motivated. I want to win The Tour de France Femmes.”
Ferrand-Prévot will join a Visma squad whose past several seasons have been built around superstar Marianne Vos, and even at 37, the Dutchwoman – who won a silver medal in last Sunday’s Olympic road race – has been one of the top racers in the world this year. But her talents lie most in flat to hilly races, especially one-day events, rather than the big mountains that increasingly define major stage races like the Tour de France Femmes. The team is hoping that Ferrand-Prévot can provide a GC boost, although she will get her chances in the one-day races as well.
“We will give her time to become a road cyclist again,” said team boss Rutger Tijssen. “She will be our team leader in the Grand Tours, but she will also be able to compete in the Walloon Classics.”
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