{"id":43974,"date":"2025-08-04T06:28:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T06:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/43974\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T06:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T06:28:18","slug":"pauline-ferrand-prevot-has-made-history-for-france-and-shown-the-way-forward-for-womens-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/43974\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Ferrand-Prevot has made history for France \u2013 and shown the way forward for women\u2019s cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Forty long years have passed since a French rider won the Tour de France<\/a>. Forty years of hand-wringing in L\u2019Equipe and feverish tension every July. The great Bernard Hinault<\/a> has endured a long wait for a successor. <\/p>\n

As Pauline Ferrand-Prevot crossed the line in Chatel<\/a>, soaking in the adulation of the crowd, forty years of hurt came to an end. She held out her arms, slipped off her bike and lay flat on her back in the finish area, the weight of her achievement sinking in. <\/p>\n

The 33-year-old\u2019s palmares is among the most impressive in history, spanning nearly every discipline: a win on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix<\/a> earlier this year, 12 world titles, Olympic mountain bike gold, to name just a few standouts. But there was a sense that this one meant more than any other victory. <\/p>\n

What seemed like a very bold statement at the time of her comeback to road racing after seven years away, that she wanted to win the Tour de France, now seems simply prophetic, a sign of the steely-eyed determination that delivered her to the title in her first season back. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve realised a little girl\u2019s dream, it\u2019s a perfect day,\u201d Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot said after taking yellow on stage eight<\/a>. \u201cI have to thank the public and my family who were here at the roadside.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her historic individual triumph has the potential to be much more than purely another glorious win for one of cycling\u2019s serial winners. It could also change the course of women\u2019s cycling. <\/p>\n

A women\u2019s version of the Tour de France has been run intermittently since 1955; a race known as the Tour de France F\u00e9minin was won three times by French great Jeannie Longo in the 1980s, while compatriot Catherine Marsal won its successor, the Tour de la C.E.E. F\u00e9minin, in 1990. <\/p>\n

But a lack of stable, committed sponsorship and funding, indifferent media coverage, and either ambivalence or outright opposition from the Tour organisers meant the women\u2019s Tour was always teetering on the verge of collapse. <\/p>\n

\"Pauline<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot soloed to victory for the second day running to seal a maiden Tour de France Femmes title (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Operating in such an atmosphere, it\u2019s hardly surprising that the women\u2019s Tour became a stunted, half-hearted thing in the 2000s. Britain\u2019s Emma Pooley joked that the crisis-hit 2009 Grande Boucle F\u00e9minine Internationale, which she won, was more of a \u201cPetite Boucle\u201d. It shuttered that year. <\/p>\n

Then came progress in the form of ASO finally agreeing to helm a women\u2019s version. La Course, a one-, sometimes two-day race, was formed under pressure from a group of female campaigners, including Pooley and Marianne Vos<\/a>. The race took place at the same time as the men\u2019s and was entirely overshadowed by it. <\/p>\n

Fast-forward only four years from the inception of the Tour de France Femmes \u2013 finally, a real, fully-fledged counterpart to les hommes \u2013 and the days of the petite Boucle and La Course feel very far away. <\/p>\n

This is the final year that the women\u2019s edition will directly follow, or clash with, the men\u2019s race, taking an entirely separate slot in the calendar from 2026. \u201cOur Tour is getting too big to be run at the same time as the men\u2019s race,\u201d race director Marion Rousse said. \u201cWe need to change the model and create our own timescale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Far from the patronising course design of previous incarnations of the Tour, which riders complained did not challenge them enough, the trend in recent years has been to make the race more difficult. In 2023 Demi Vollering wrote herself into the history books as a winner on the mist-shrouded slopes of the Col du Tourmalet; last year\u2019s route finished on possibly the Tour\u2019s most legendary climb, Alpe d\u2019Huez. This year the race again reached a climax in the Alps, with Ferrand-Prevot winning on the Col de la Madeleine. Those proved the standout moments of each Tour; we can only hope next year\u2019s route is even bigger and bolder. <\/p>\n

\"Ferrand-Prevot<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Ferrand-Prevot was shadowed by Gigante, Vollering and Niewiadoma on the final day of racing (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The race had been talked up as the blockbuster rematch between last year\u2019s champion Kasia Niewiadoma and 2023 winner Demi Vollering. While those two were deservedly on the podium at the end of the race \u2013 both for the fourth year in a row \u2013 this year\u2019s edition was also notable for the breakthrough of several other challengers, as the women\u2019s peloton continues to go from strength to strength. <\/p>\n

Kim Le Court made history for Mauritius<\/a>, becoming the first African rider to win a stage of the race and to wear yellow, while Australian Sarah Gigante proved herself a force to be reckoned with on the toughest climbs, and a potential GC contender if she can overcome her descending woes. <\/p>\n

None of Lotte Kopecky, Marlen Reusser or Elisa Longo Borghini were at full strength for this race, with the latter two abandoning. If they had been fit we could have seen similar drama to last year\u2019s race, when an unprecedented four-second gap separated yellow from second place. The margins for success in such a talented peloton are finer than ever. <\/p>\n

For the home nation in particular, this is a moment to celebrate. French riders have won nearly half the stages in this race, the brilliant youngster Maeva Squiban and veteran Ferrand-Prevot taking two apiece. <\/p>\n

Alongside the pair, the nation has a host of present and future stars in Cedrine Kerboal \u2013 winner of stage six last year, the first-ever French winner of a stage \u2013 Marion Bunel, Juliette Labous, and Evita Muzic. While France\u2019s male cyclists struggle under the weight of history and the overbearing expectations of the public, its women have more than risen to the task. <\/p>\n

\"Vollering<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney have both finished on the podium for the last four editions (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Even a frustrated Vollering, second on the final stage and second overall to add to her heartbreaking second on the podium last year, could see the bigger picture. \u201cCycling is in a great place now, new riders coming up and coming back. It\u2019s an exciting time,\u201d she said. Jeannie Longo, watching from the roadside in Chatel, must have agreed. <\/p>\n

What next for women\u2019s cycling, and its biggest race? Perhaps to look forward, we have to look back: to Longo, Marsal, and the early blueprint for the Tour de France Femmes. The first Tour de France F\u00e9minin, won by American Marianne Martin, was 18 stages long; Longo\u2019s triumphs were over 15, 12, and 11 stages, each with an additional prologue. <\/p>\n

With the ever-increasing professionalisation of the women\u2019s peloton, and its huge strength in depth, there is no reason why the Tour de France Femmes cannot reach the length of its 1980s counterpart. Could a race of true parity, a 21-stage race traversing every kind of terrain, with equal billing to the hommes, be on the cards? <\/p>\n

Ferrand-Prevot\u2019s victory is the perfect launchpad: for a new wave of enthusiasm in France for women\u2019s cycling, and for taking this race to new heights. <\/p>\n

As Ferrand-Prevot rode herself into yellow and sealed the race\u2019s queen stage atop the infamous Col de la Madeleine, Rousse embraced her compatriot at the roadside. She later said, \u201cI really felt something big was happening. I had tears in my eyes. I was a little overwhelmed because women\u2019s cycling has come so far.\u201d This race has proven just how much further it can go. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-43974","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\/43974","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=43974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}