Pauline Ferrand-Prévot made her highly-anticipated go back to avenue racing with Visma-Rent a Motorcycle on the UAE Excursion final month however mentioned that was once only a warm-up and that her first large goal will happen at Strade Bianche in Siena on Saturday.
The French multi-discipline champion signed a three-year contract with the Dutch workforce thru to the top of 2027, in what was once a highly-publicised switch from Ineos Grenadiers’ off-road workforce.
The 15-time elite Global Champion and 2024 mountain cycling Olympic Champion has now dedicated to the street full-time, and whilst she started her season on the UAE Excursion, she mentioned her focal point was once on Strade Bianche, the revived Milan-San Remo Ladies and one day, the Excursion de France Femmes.
On the four-day UAE Excursion, Ferrand-Prévot completed seventeenth total, 5:18 in the back of total winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Crew ADQ). Requested if she was once upset along with her efficiency, she mentioned, “Not at all.”
“I was not expecting much from the UAE Tour; just to be back in the bunch and with my teammates to get to know each other.”
Ferrand-Prévot mentioned that she has been continuously getting ready in particular for the Spring Classics, with Strade Bianche as her first main race that she objectives to do smartly at amongst her opponents within the peloton.
“Tomorrow will be the first test of the season. If I don’t do well tomorrow, maybe I will be a bit disappointed because I trained hard for it. But the UAE Tour was just a warm-up.”
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The ladies’s peloton will compete throughout a 136km race that includes one further gravel sector this 12 months for a complete of 50km cut up throughout 13 sectors of off-road – a course that are meant to completely swimsuit gravel and mountain motorcycle experts within the box corresponding to Ferrand-Prévot and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Alpecin).
Ferrand-Prévot mentioned that seeing an increasing number of mountain motorcycle riders competing at the avenue and for top-tier groups has been great and that they may have a slight benefit at a race like Strade Bianche.
“Yes … it is not the same technique or handling on the bike but, for sure, we are used to this, and not scared of the speed. I think it’s good that more MTB riders are coming in and can show the MTB discipline,” she mentioned.
Ferrand-Prévot made historical past within the 2014-2015 season on the age of 23 when she turned into the primary bicycle owner to carry international titles within the 3 disciplines concurrently. She gained the elite ladies’s avenue race international identify in 2014 Ponferrada, the XCO cross-country international identify in 2015 in Vallnord, and the cyclo-cross international identify in 2015 in Tabor. Since then, she has accumulated a complete of 15 elite international titles throughout avenue, mountain motorcycle, cyclocross and gravel.
Despite the fact that she hasn’t raced a complete avenue season since 2018, out of doors of competing on the French Highway Championships in 2019 and 2021, she shall be a key rider to look at at the 2025 Ladies’s WorldTour, and surely at Strade Bianche this weekend.
“I have prepared myself very well [for Strade Bianche], and it’s why I have good motivation for tomorrow,” she mentioned.
