Lance Armstrong on Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s time-trial position: ‘Painful to watch’

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot endured a difficult day at the Tour de France Femmes on Tuesday. The French Visma | Lease a Bike rider lost more than two minutes to Marlen Reusser, leaving her with a significant deficit to overcome if she is to successfully defend her title.

Lance Armstrong discusses the Tour de France Femmes daily on his THEMOVE podcast, and he opened his Stage 4 review with a brutal message he had received from Johan Bruyneel. “This is the worst time-trial position and one of the worst time-trial performances we have ever seen,” Bruyneel wrote to his former rider. “It was almost painful to watch,” Armstrong added.

“Your position on the bike is something you can control. Considering how much time I assume they spent working on it, they really should have dialled that position in better,” said fellow contributor Mari Holden, the 2000 world time-trial champion. “It simply looked as though the bike was not even comfortable to ride. It looked unstable.”

“You must not forget that she is a very small woman,” sports director Jos van Emden said in defence of Ferrand-Prévot’s position while speaking to Sporza. “Small riders do not sit as well on a time-trial bike as tall riders such as Reusser. That is simply a fact, and it is something you have to deal with.”

“That woman is so happy it is over. She was absolutely miserable,” the American observed, although her struggles also surprised him. “This woman has won world titles in every discipline, right? Road cycling, cyclo-cross, mountain biking… You automatically think: ‘Well, she can ride any bike!’ If we gave her a tricycle, she would probably be good on that as well.”

On the other hand, Armstrong believes the situation could make the remainder of the race much more interesting. “Where does this leave us? She really has her work cut out for her now. The race… she may have lost the Tour today.”

“She has to blow the race apart now. It has to be super-aggressive. Two minutes is still two minutes,” he concluded.