Pauline Ferrand-Prévot withdraws from Tour de France Femmes

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will miss the final weekend of the Tour de France Femmes. The Frenchwoman was not feeling well ahead of stage 8 and, as a result, her Visma | Lease a Bike team decided there was little sense in continuing the race.

“Unfortunately, Pauline was not feeling well this morning. In consultation with the medical staff, it has been decided that she will not start today. We wish Pauline a speedy recovery!” said the Dutch team.

Ferrand-Prévot, the defending champion of the race, had been unable to make her usual impact throughout this year’s Tour de France Femmes. She was already facing a significant deficit after the individual time trial, and that gap only continued to grow during the stages that should normally have suited her better.

On Friday, she wanted to make one final attempt at achieving a strong result on Mont Ventoux, but that effort also failed to produce the outcome she had hoped for. “It may sound strange, but even though I couldn’t compete for the victory, I still enjoyed it.”

“It was a beautiful climb and I especially enjoyed seeing Marion do so well,” she said afterwards. Ferrand-Prévot eventually finished the stage in 18th place.

Team manager Rutger Tijssen had already indicated after the stage that Visma | Lease a Bike wanted to understand what had gone wrong. “We simply weren’t good enough today. We’ll have to spend some time figuring out exactly why that was. Tomorrow we’ll make a new plan again. A new day brings new opportunities.”

That new plan will now have to be made without Ferrand-Prévot. Has the explanation for her struggles perhaps now been found? Time — and the data — will ultimately have to provide the answer.