Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, becoming the first French winner of cycling’s biggest race since 1989.
Not since Bernard Hinault last won the men’s Tour de France in 1985 and Jeannie Longo won the women’s edition in 1989 has a French cyclist taken home the yellow jersey, a long, long wait for a nation whose summers have been entwined with the race for more than a century.
After retiring from a successful mountain bike career in which she became the Olympic champion in Paris, Ferrand-Prévot returned to the road this season with the explicit goal of winning the Tour de France Femmes within three years. In the end, she only needed one.
She sealed her win with victory in the final stage of the race, crossing the line resplendent in the yellow jersey and overcome by the emotion of ending France’s long wait for a home champion of its iconic race.
In the general classification, she finished three minutes and 42 seconds ahead of 2023 winner Demi Vollering in second and four minutes and nine seconds ahead of defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney.
Ferrand-Prévot rode into the yellow jersey on the penultimate stage, simply riding away from her rivals on the decisive climb of this year’s race – the mighty, 18.6 km long Col de la Madeleine on Stage 8 – and crossed the line having gained more than three minutes on Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering.
Instead of these former winners, Ferrand-Prévot’s closest challenge that day came from Sarah Gigante who attacked early on the Col de la Madeleine. Gigante was caught and passed by the Frenchwoman but limited her losses to finish second, one minute and 45 seconds back.
That ride left Ferrand-Prévot with a two-and-a-half minute lead over Gigante in the overall classification with just one stage left to race. Gigante was dropped on the final stage and lost her podium spot.
But even with such a big lead, that last stage was not straightforward for Ferrand-Prévot. She fell behind her rivals on the valley roads before the first climb of the day, forcing her team to chase and protect her overall lead. But she recovered to launch a solo attack with six kilometers still to race and cross the line alone.