“The next Bernard Hinault will certainly be a woman,” declared race director Marion Rousse before the start of this Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Now, with one stage to go, and after 40 years of waiting for the home crowds, the champion-elect is chosen. Step forward Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, France’s first female yellow jersey in the modern era.
It was on the Col de la Madeleine, stage eight’s summit finish, that the Visma-Lease a Bike rider took flight. First, she latched on to an attack from Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), before dropping the Australian, and then tagging and passing the breakaway. Her winning margin gives her a 2:37 cushion over Gigante at the top of the GC – 3:18 to Vollering in third – a lead the crowds on the climb knew will likely be unassailable.
As Ferrand-Prévot collected her yellow jersey, hundreds of fans stood banked on a grass verge in front of the podium to cheer. “Pauline! Pauline! Pauline!” they chanted. Thousands had made a near 20km trek to the top of the Madeleine, and now they were witnessing history. A tear in her eye, their hero smiled and waved back. She then returned behind the screens and, shielded from the folie, collapsed into the arms of Rousse. The embrace brought both women to tears.
“It’s a little girl’s dream that’s come true today,” Ferrand-Prévot said afterwards. “It’s hard to find the words.”
The plan had long been to overhaul the race on the Madeleine. In the months before the Tour, the Frenchwoman visited the mountain twice, learning the inclines and bends, every kink in the tarmac, so she’d be ready for stage eight’s finale. She'd treat it like a mountain bike race, she decided, an intense, hour-or-so effort, teetering on blowing up. On the day, everything played out “pretty perfect”.
“We put Marion Bunel in the first breakaway so she could eventually help me on the final climb. From there until the Madeleine, the girls protected me really well. I got to the foot of the Madeleine and I felt good. I felt that the pace was high, but I wasn’t full gas,” Ferrand-Prévot recounted.
“Then, when Sarah attacked, I wanted to see if Demi could follow, and I saw she wasn’t able to. I tried to get back up to Sarah, and when I got there, we reached Marion, who was on a slightly flatter part, and that allowed me to recover on her wheel to then attack, accelerate, and try and drop Sarah.”
It was a victory, she added, that was crafted in the “fine details”.
“Everyone rode perfectly as a team. That’s why I’m really happy, because it was all down to teamwork – it’s a victory for the team.”
Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour heroics come almost a year to the date she won the mountain bike gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Returning to the road, after a six-year hiatus, she set herself the goal of winning the Tour within three years. “This victory today is a sign that I made the right choice,” she said.
“It was a challenge, really, a challenge to see if I could do it. Voilà, I know there’s still another stage, and I haven’t won yet, but to wear this yellow jersey is really a little girl’s dream come true. It’s an amazing feeling. I just want to see my team-mates to thank them and celebrate with them tonight.”
In the meantime, the Frenchwoman now faces an hour-and-a-half transfer to her hotel for the evening. She’ll have a massage when she gets there, she said, and then try and get a good night's sleep. On Sunday, she has the chance to make history as the first Frenchwoman to win the modern Tour de France Femmes. Her 2:37 lead suggests that, barring catastrophe, she’ll almost certainly do it.
“I know that the girls will be 100% behind me,” Ferrand-Prévot said. “As I said, it’s really a little girl’s dream to wear this yellow jersey, so in any case, my Tour de France is a success.
“Today I felt really good, so why would I feel bad tomorrow? We’ll have to be vigilant. I did a recon of the stage – I know the Joux-Plane and the Corbier. It’s going to be interesting.”
