When Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was a little girl, she told her mother she wished she was a boy. She wanted to race the Tour de France, she said. But with no women’s version of the event, she knew it wasn’t possible. Her dream, she figured, was already was over.
Now, aged 33, that same girl has not only ridden the Tour – she’s won it. On her race debut, after a six-year hiatus from road racing, the Olympic mountain bike champion earned back-to-back stage wins on the final weekend, securing the yellow jersey with a convincing margin of more than three and a half minutes.
As Ferrand-Prévot sat in her winner’s press conference, inside a wooden building in Châtel, she cradled a stuffed lion teddy – a winning gift from the race’s sponsor. She cast her mind back to her younger self. What would she like to say to that little girl now? “I want to tell her that you need to believe in your dreams. You need to work hard to make it happen – you don’t get things for free in life,” she said.
“When you work hard, it pays off. Even when you have doubts and low moments, you need to persevere and keep going. That’s what I’d say.”
When the Visma-Lease a Bike rider declared her return to the road this season, she set herself the goal of winning the Tour within three years. To do so, she knew she'd have to put in months of preparation and sacrifice. One of the measures she took was cutting down her weight – a fact she has spoken openly about, and one that has garnered her criticism online.
“I have quite a lot of complaints on Instagram about it, that I am not a good example for young people,” she said. “But I also think parents should educate their kids and say to them, ‘Ok, Pauline is like this because she’s preparing for the Tour de France, and it’s not forever.’
“I don’t want to stay like this because I know it’s not 100% healthy, but we also had a good plan with the nutritionist in the team and everything is in control. I didn’t do [anything] extreme, and I still had power left after nine days of racing. It’s a tricky subject, because you have to find the limit. I also know that I can’t stay like this forever. It’s the choice I made.”
Whether she makes the choice again to defend her title is now a different question.
“Because my preparation was so hard for the Tour de France, now I don’t really see myself doing the same again,” she said. “Maybe it’s just because I’m tired and want to have a small break.
“Over these past months, dedicating myself to this has been good, it's paid off, but it’s also been really hard. That’s why I couldn’t do it multiple times in the year. It’s so much sacrifice.
“Anyways, I still have two years of contract, and I still love what I’m doing. It’s my life… I will try to win as many races as possible.”
It was almost 9:30pm by the time Ferrand-Prévot waved goodbye to the journalists and left her press conference. Two kilometres down the hill, the celebrations had already been laid out for her return to the Visma-Lease a Bike bus; three bottles of prosecco sat on top of a cool box, as well as a stack of gold, paper cups.
There was also a card awaiting the new champion. Opened ajar, it contained no words, only a picture of Ferrand-Prévot, dressed in her yellow jersey from the day before. France, at last, had a rider on the top step. And Ferrand Prévot, after years of dedication, had finally lived out her rêve de petite fille – her little girl’s dream.
Whether she returns to the race or not, that legacy will never change.
