‘I want to journey the Tour de France’ – Ferrand-Prévot considers street racing return

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is contemplating a return to street racing following the Olympic Video games held in Paris in 2024. 

In an interview along with her Ineos Grenadiers teammate Geraint Thomas as a part of his podcast The Geraint Thomas Biking Membership [GTCC], the multi-discipline world champion additionally mentioned that she in the future hoped to compete on the Tour de France Femmes.

“I do miss it, particularly now that we’ve got a Tour de France for ladies,” Ferrand-Prévot mentioned within the 54-minute podcast. 

“I want to journey the Tour de France in the future. Proper now I am very centered on the Paris Olympics, however why not get again to street racing subsequent 12 months, or the 12 months after? I would really like that.”

Ferrand-Prévot made historical past within the 2014-2015 season on the age of 23, when she turned the primary bike owner to concurrently maintain world titles within the three disciplines; successful the elite ladies’s street race world title in 2014 Ponferrada, the XCO cross-country world title in 2015 in Vallnord, and the cyclo-cross world title in 2015 in Tabor.  

Since then, she has amassed a complete of 15 elite world championship titles throughout street, cyclocross, mountain bike; cross nation, brief observe and workforce relay, and gravel racing. She is at present the reigning short-track and cross-country mountain bike world champion, having secured these titles on the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow.

She was the primary girl to signal for Ineos Grenadiers in the beginning of this season and is a part of the workforce’s rising off-road collective racing cyclo-cross, gravel, and mountain bike. 

Nonetheless, questions swirled at the moment she introduced signing with the workforce as as to if Ferrand-Prévot would entertain the thought of returning to street racing sooner or later.

She raced on the street for Rabobank from 2012 by way of 2016 earlier than becoming a member of Canyon-SRAM from 2017 by way of the tip of 2020. Nonetheless, she hasn’t raced a street season, outdoors of competing on the French Street Championships in 2019 and 2021, since 2018. 

Ferrand-Prévot acknowledged at the moment that the mountain bike occasion on the Olympic Video games in Paris was her important precedence. 

“My important aim will likely be to attempt to be Olympic Champion in Paris in 2024 as a result of it’s the solely title I am lacking, so I really need that one,” she mentioned in an interview in 2022.

“Perhaps I’ll come again to street racing, however not for proper now, for certain. Once I take a look at the Tour de France and all these huge races, yeah, for certain, I possibly need to be part of it, however later, and I simply need to focus now on my dream. With the Olympics at dwelling, I believe I’ve probability.”

Ferrand-Prévot reiterated her motivation towards securing a gold medal on the Olympic Video games in her interview with Thomas, having missed out on the medals within the three earlier Olympics.

“Because the Olympic Video games in Tokyo, I’ve been actually wanting ahead to this occasion in my dwelling nation. It’s also the rationale why I signed with Ineos Grenadiers,” she mentioned.

“I need to develop myself even additional and grow to be the most effective model of myself within the run-up to the Video games. I’m actually centered and actually can not wait till July 28, 2024.

“I used to be at all times a giant favorite in London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, but it surely all turned an excessive amount of for me. I wasn’t ready for it, however I’m now extra conscious of all the things surrounding it. I can deal with the stress now.”