Tour de France-France celebrates his cycling queen Pauline Ferrand-Prevot

France has a queen again. No Marie Antoinette who has to fear the folk anger or even the guillotine. On the contrary, Pauline I., with a bourgeois name Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, is the large-scale cycling queen. She made a front page of the sports newspaper “L’équipe” to the crowned head-after the 33-year-old returnee on the bike up on the Kehren up to the Col de la Madeleine had left all competitors for the overall victory at the Tour de France.

Dream and nightmare

The next day she added to the Alps and also won the stage of this tour of France on Sunday evening in the yellow jersey. “I really wanted this victory in yellow. I also said that on the bus in the morning, «she said later.

The path to dream fulfillment initially led over a nightmare. In the first third of the final stage, Ferrand Prevot belonged to a group of suspended drivers when the peloton shared due to numerous attacks. “After that, my team brought me back well,” she praised her Visma-Equipe. “Then I took care of always being at the front of the peloton,” she said. And her shape in the final was so splendid that she not only loosely parried an attack by the second -placed Dutch Demi Volling, but then completed her own with the day’s victory. “Now I’m just happy to have won this way,” she said.

Giant in yellow

The queen became a giant – as such she adorned the title page of the »L’équipe« on Monday. In fact, this victory of Ferrand Prevot is a gigantic success for the Grande Nation. In 1986 the last Frenchman Bernard Hinault won a Tour de France, from 1987 to 1989 his compatriot Jeannie Longo won the overall victory among women. At that time the race was almost twice as long, 15 stages instead of nine as today. It was also in time and from the route to the men’s race. Changes to the tour organizer ASO then led to the hiring of the women’s race.

Since 2022, the Tour de France Femmes has been available again as a stage race, every year with a new winner. In 2022 it was old master Annemiek van Vleuthen, full the following year. This was considered one that could justify an era on the tour. In 2024 it was conquered by the Polish Kasia Niewiadoma by four seconds. And this time too, full of “only” second. Among other things, she blamed the consequences of her fall injury from the third stage that she had not completely exhausted her performance. Fullening also admitted a tactical mistake in her last attack on the last mountain: “That was the best preparation for Pauline,” she said, adding: “If you don’t try it, you don’t know if it succeeds.”

Successful return

Last year’s winner Niewiadoma, on the other hand, was satisfied. On Saturday she offered her by far the best mountain performance of the career at Col de la Madeleine, she said after a look at her performance data. Volling took out 22 seconds on the last few meters and referred them in third place.

Ferrand Prevot had distanced her both predecessors on the tour throne on the queen stage by more than three minutes. This was not to be expected in view of her advance performance on long mountains, after all, the mountain bike Olympic champion of Paris had only returned to road cycling at the beginning of this season. She had given up the tour of the Spain in May because of exhaustion. However, since her victory at the spring classic Paris – Roubaix, you knew that she can put pressure on the pedals at the latest.

New records

The height training camp apparently helped before the tour. “She worked incredibly hard there,” praised the sporting director Jos van Emden, the attitude of his top driver. “I took a lot of privation this year. And here on the tour I said to myself: that shouldn’t have been in vain, «said Ferrand Prevot.

Now she can celebrate. “I just enjoy this moment. I also don’t know what else to do. And it may well be that something like this only happens once in life, «she said. In view of the many different tour winners, this is a logical conclusion. At the same time, Ferrand Prevots made success for two new records. Thanks to her performance, your Visma racing team is the first to win the tour in men and women; The Dane Jonas Vingegaard had presented. And victories at Paris – Roubaix and the tour in one season only Heroes like Hinault and the outstanding Eddy Merckx. So Ferrand Prevot is even better than this year’s Roubaiux second Tadej Pogačar. And with her merits at Mountainbike and Gravel, she is incomparable when it comes to versatility anyway. Women’s cycling has a new superstar.