{"id":41200,"date":"2025-08-02T06:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T06:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/41200\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T06:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T06:26:10","slug":"my-race-is-tomorrow-is-pauline-ferrand-prevot-about-to-blow-up-the-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/41200\/","title":{"rendered":"‘My race is tomorrow’ – is Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot about to blow up the Tour de France Femmes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le jour de gloire \u2013 the day of glory \u2013 might not have arrived for France\u2019s GC hope Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> on stage seven, but if everything goes to plan, she\u2019ll be wearing the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a>\u2019s yellow jersey in less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old, riding her Tour debut after a six-year hiatus from road racing, is currently second overall, 26 seconds down on AG Insurance-Soudal\u2019s Kim Le Court-Pienaar<\/a>. For a moment on Friday\u2019s seventh stage \u2013 won by UAE Team ADQ\u2019s Maeva Squiban in Chamb\u00e9ry<\/a> \u2013 the Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> rider led the virtual classification, before Le Court rejoined the GC group on a descent<\/a>, and the leaders crossed the line together.<\/p>\n

Missing out on the yellow jersey, Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot said afterwards, was no big deal. \u201cIt\u2019s not for today,\u201d she explained. Her plan is hatched for Saturday\u2019s summit finish.<\/p>\n

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When Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, the Olympic mountain bike champion, returned to the road this season, she was clear she wanted to win the Tour de France Femmes <\/a>within three years. Her preparations for this year\u2019s race pivoted around one climb in particular \u2013 the 18.6km Col de la Madeleine, the summit finish of Saturday\u2019s penultimate stage.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the race, the Frenchwoman visited the mountain twice. Asked by Cycling Weekly how well she feels she knows the ascent, her response was fast and confident. \u201cI know a lot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to do the recon there, many times, because I knew it was important to know. The race will be decided there. You know, in mountain biking, you know every single route, every single corner \u2013 I also wanted to have the same pattern and to know very well the climb like this. You feel much more comfortable, you know where you are, and it\u2019s also mentally easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Tour route was unveiled last October, it was the Madeleine, the curtain closer of this year\u2019s Queen stage, that attracted the most attention. \u201cIt\u2019s around an hour and 20 or 30 minutes’ worth of climbing \u2013 an effort I\u2019m used to doing in mountain biking,\u201d Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a head-to-head race, and I\u2019m going to concentrate on myself and my effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s the same approach the Visma-Lease a Bike leader has taken throughout the first week of racing, and as yet, she\u2019s still to be tested. \u201cI\u2019m not tired,\u201d she said. \u201cI was in control today. For me, it\u2019s been a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pauline<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

There was a moment on stage seven, after she crested the Col du Granier, when Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot began to imagine herself in yellow. Le Court had suffered on the climb and fallen away. \u201cI thought maybe it could happen,\u201d the Frenchwoman said, but again she stayed calm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told myself, \u2018My race is tomorrow.\u2019 Today it wasn\u2019t the goal to take the yellow jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

That prize, she hopes, will come on Saturday. France has now waited 40 years for a home winner of the Tour, the last being Bernard Hinault in 1985. The French have faith that the next one will be Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot.<\/p>\n

Each day at this year\u2019s race, the 33-year-old\u2019s Visma-Lease a Bike bus has been swarmed with fans. They\u2019ve painted signs carrying her name, waved bottles for her to sign, and cried at her for autographs each time she’s carried out her turbo trainer routines. After stage seven, as she spoke to the media, she tore the race numbers off her jersey, and handed them to a girl who watched her in awe.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying: Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot is the people\u2019s favourite on the ground. Does she feel confident for the race\u2019s finale? \u201cYou can\u2019t be confident,\u201d she replied. \u201cI don\u2019t know how the others are now, but for sure I felt good again today. I didn\u2019t use a lot of energy. I think I\u2019m still fresh for tomorrow, so, let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n

If everything goes to plan, les enfants de la patrie \u2013 the children of the fatherland \u2013 will be chanting her name at the podium. The day of glory may be imminent.<\/p>\n

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Tour de France Femmes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Le jour de gloire \u2013 the day of glory \u2013 might not have arrived for France\u2019s GC hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-41200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}