Pauline Ferrand-Prévot changed number: 'Must be able to live my own life'

Ferrand-Prévot returned to road cycling last year at 32 with a three-year goal: to win the Tour de France Femmes. After barely eight months, it was already achieved for the rider, completing her career even further after all the world titles, Olympic medals and other races already on her palmarès.

Still, the Tour was just that little bit higher, she reflects in mid-January 2026 from Spanish La Nucia. “It was a madhouse, even more than after the Olympic gold. I wasn’t entirely ready for it. The Tour is big in cycling, but this time it was even a huge achievement for people who don’t follow the sport. I enjoyed it all, but I wasn’t completely prepared, and it cost a lot of energy,” she says honestly.

“I love people and making them happy, but ultimately, it did tire me out. I don’t feel like I’ve changed myself, but you do notice that for the outside world, a lot has happened because I won the Tour as a French rider. The attention is nice, but I must be able to lead my own life.”

To regain focus heading into 2026, she took drastic measures. “I’ve had to find a balance, and this winter has been really good for that. I changed my number and spent a lot of time with family. I was able to read books and have time for myself. I needed that heading into the coming season,” she says.

In 2026, the Tour de France Femmes is circled in red once again, but as always, the world's top rider is also seeking new challenges. “The Tour was wonderful, but I think I can be more consistent throughout the season. Races like Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège also really appeal to me. I’m not riding Paris-Roubaix because I want to win Liège and will prepare for that.”

“I will also focus on the World Championships, but it’s quite a challenge to maintain focus after the Tour. The big goal is to win the Tour again, but the pressure is less because I’ve already done it,” Ferrand-Prévot says. “Last season I started the Tour as an outsider, but next season that will be different. I have to be ready to start as one of the favourites in the biggest races. I love pressure, and I handle it well, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma and others will do everything they can to keep Ferrand-Prévot from that repeated number one position. “I’m not so much concerned with what the competition is doing. I’m in my own bubble sometimes, which is strange: the world keeps turning around you, but you’re sort of outside of it. That’s sometimes good because you’re unshakeable, but sometimes you don’t even notice what’s happening around you.”

“I do my own thing and prepare as best as I can,” says the stoic and experienced Frenchwoman. “Worrying about what others do makes no sense because you have no influence on that. At the end of the day, it’s also ‘just’ cycling and you have to find a sort of balance for yourself without focusing too much.”

The public comments from Vollering and Marlen Reusser about Ferrand-Prévot’s weight during the Tour leave her cold. “What my competitors said about it was fine. Everyone can have an opinion about me, including about my weight. If they want to say something, they’ll do it anyway. I didn’t take it as a personal attack. If you absorb all those things, you’ll fall apart yourself. I have my family, the team, and other people who support me — that’s who I listen to.”

It took a good fifteen minutes before the weight discussion that flared up so much in August came up at the Visma | Lease a Bike training camp. “I was waiting for that question,” Ferrand-Prévot responded with a big smile. “It was a big topic and I didn’t even realise it at first, but in the end I mainly found it unfortunate that my parents had to read those things.”

“I prepared myself with a whole team for the Tour, and within the team, there was no discussion about that approach,” she says. “We knew that Madeleine was an hour and a half of climbing and that we had to be light, but also maintain strength. It’s just a shame that now the perception or shortcut has arisen that I won the Tour because I was light, whereas the preparation was about so much more.”

“It’s something I’ve done this way for ten years and now suddenly it’s a thing,” Ferrand-Prévot sighs. “We work with trainers, nutrition specialists, doctors and so on, so I’m just going to do everything again to be ready for the Tour next year. Otherwise, I simply wouldn’t be doing my job well. Ultimatel,y I do it for myself and not for others. No one takes away from me the memory that I came across the finish line with my hands in the air.”

That cycling is a demanding sport, Ferrand-Prévot knows better than most. In recent weeks, that has been underscored by the retirements of riders such as Fem van Empel and Simon Yates, and by the pause in the career of talented mountain biker Samara Maxwell from New Zealand. “You can only have respect for that. Cycling isn’t everything in life, and ultimately you have to be happy,” says the Frenchwoman.

“If you can’t be happy with your sport, it’s a good choice to take a step back. It’s a shame to lose talents, but I understand it too. I also doubted my own future in the sport a few years ago. What people don’t always realise: it’s relatively simple to reach the top, but difficult to stay there because of expectations of yourself, from outside, pressure, and so on.”

Her own partner, Dylan van Baarle, also left Visma | Lease a Bike to do his own thing more at Soudal Quick-Step. “Dylan is Dylan and I mainly want him to be happy at home. We have different personalities, and he didn’t feel what I feel at the team, but in the end, not much has changed for us: we still don’t see each other very much during the season,” she says with a friendly smile.

A departure from Visma | Lease a Bike is not under discussion for Ferrand-Prévot. “I will someday finish my career here, because I feel very much at home. From my own experience I know a lot, but the team adds so much innovation to it,” says the Tour winner, who doesn’t want to set an end date. “What I want to do after my career? I don’t know. I do want to become a mother someday, in my ‘second life’ so to speak. But beyond that? I’m not concerned with it right now,” concludes the motivated Ferrand-Prévot ahead of 2026.