Ferrand-Prévot finally gives France another tour victory, fulling again

In the Corbier, the last climb of the Tour de France, the French go crazy when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is coming. They have completely covered the road with her name, wear French flags and call her. Still surviving a few hairpin bends down, and then the rider of the Dutch Visma-Lease A Bike (Lab) is sure of her tour victory.

But Ferrand-Prévot wants more. This morning she told her team leaders to also write the final stage in her name, now that she is wearing the yellow leader’s jersey. In Bergdorp Châtel, she attacks with six kilometers, and just like the day earlier on the Col de la Madeleine, no competitor can follow. After the finish, the 33-year-old Française falls crying on the asphalt. “I’m so happy,” she releases. The Tour is why she exchanged the mountain bike this season after twelve world titles and Olympic gold for a return to the road – which she also became world champion as a twenties.

After Ferrand-Prévot, Demi Volling is second. Again the Dutch tour winner from 2023 grabs next to the yellow jersey. Last year the two -minute loss of time she sustained in a crash in the rankings, which she lost to the Polish Kasia Niewiadoma in four seconds. Now the difference with Ferrand-Prévot is no less than 3.43 minutes.

Heavily damaged

This year too, Volling was heavily damaged on the ground. Already in the third stage she was killed in one of the last turns in Angers towards the expected mass sprint, and then pushed over the finish by her teammates. Everywhere the rider of FDJ-Suez was in pain: on her head, knees, back and buttocks. But she didn’t want to give up.

The fall of fullness led to a real Tourrel. Her team boss Stephen Delcourt spoke that evening of a lack of respect in the peloton, of which his leader was the victim. Visma-team leader Jos van Emden felt addressed as a colleague: “He apparently wants a platoon of eight riders, with Demi in, to continue in a golden cage,” signed up several media on Tuesday. For Van Emden, the fall was nothing but an accident, fullness he blamed “appointment behavior.”

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On Wednesday, Van Emden and Delcourt met at the buses, where the two under moderation of Visma-head coach Jacco Verhaeren talked their disagreement in twenty minutes. “I did not agree with his wording, he wasn’t with mine. But we both strive for a safe course,” said Van Emden on Thursday morning before the start in Clermont-Ferrand.

Yet in his eyes a twinkle appeared, then NRC He asked him if his solid wording was not a case of ‘psychological warfare’ to destabilize fullness. The rider of the French FDJ Suez is known to show her emotions quickly. It makes her a beloved rider for some, with whom can be sympathized in front and adversity. Others, such as Van Emden, call it ‘appoint’, or see a weak spot in it.

“Of course, psychological warfare is also part of it,” Van Emden started his answer before the Visma press chief cut off the conversation. She did not want Van Emden’s words to continue towards the decisive phase of the Tour. “That was a good intervention,” said the team leader. Moments later he appeared with two bags of stroopwafels at the bus of the Volling team. Visma and FDJ-Suez draw the peace in a typically Dutch way.

What the fuss did with fullness remained unclear for a long time. Her team shielded her from the media all week. One, at most two questions, journalists were allowed to ask her together before and after the stage, and they were mainly about her pain and her performance. The 28-year-old rider, working on her first year at FDJ-Suez, was positive about the heavy final weekend in the Alps. The pain pulled away, she could go with the best.

With the best

This also applied to other Dutch outsiders for the Tourpodium. Anna van der Breggen (35) from SD Worx returned this year from a three -year cycling pension with the best on Friday in the mountain stage to Chambéry, but lost a lot of time on Saturday. Earlier in the Tour she had driven herself empty for several days for the sprint opportunities of her teammate Lorena Wiebes, who won both sprint stages and won the green jersey of the points classification. Van der Breggen had to pay for her efforts on the Madeleine.

Pauliena Rooijakkers (32) from Fenix-DECEUNINCK was there longer on the Madeleine. Last year’s number three even jumped brutally away when the Australian Sarah Gigante was the first to attack, but in the end could not follow. Her younger teammate Puck Pieterse (23) rode an invisible tour, which was co -marred by two falls. Especially on Friday she clattered hard on the ground, in the descent of the Granier. She crossed the line with a bloody knee.

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Even before the tour ended, FDJ team leader Lars Boom said who had to have a peace with a place behind Ferrand-Prévot. On the Madeleine she had been ‘very good’, but she had ‘not had her best day’. The fall has always played a role during the week, Boom said: “If you have to put a lot of energy to feel normal again after the fall, it will cost energy that you need now.”

In addition, he compared the body of lightweight Ferrand-Prévot (about 50 kilos) with that of full-length (57 kilos). “When you see her, she looks slightly different than Demi. Maybe you should look for it,” Boom must probably thought about subsequent Tourclashes with the Française. She dropped out of four kilos in a short time by taking very little food.

I want to show young girls that you don’t have to be superskinny to ride in the mountains

“I can lose some weight, but I am longer than she is. Towards the Tour we considered a lower weight, but after the Tour of Switzerland I fell sick and getting better more important than losing weight,” full -length after her finish responds. On the Madeleine she was “the best of the heavyweights,” she laughs. “I think I’m on a nice weight now, and I am proud of it. I want to show young girls that you don’t have to be super chick to drive in the mountains.

She also has a reply to Van Emden’s comments. “Especially in the Netherlands I have the stigma around me that I am a bit of a drama queen. But ask my teammates, they will disprove it. Van Emden is someone who does not know me, who says something like that. I can’t blame him.”

Collective made the difference

At Visma-Lab the Tour started and ended in Hosanna, with Marianne Vos who won the first stage and cycled in yellow for several days. Team boss Richard Plugge saw how the collective made the difference. It is a lesson that took the team from the men’s cycling, where the team game in the Tour has been around for several years in a row around the Danish leader Jonas Vingegaard. “Of course you need an exceptional talent, an individual like Pauline. But you have all seen how the team drove around Pauline, and how she was able to save energy.”

Vos herself calls the performance of the Visma headwoman ‘indescribable’. She rode the tour in a new, more serving role than previous editions, and that tastes like more: “With a rider like Pauline it is very nicely work, it went very natural.”

After the necessary hugs and a phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron, Ferrand-Prévot will get the last yellow sweater. For her, the French fans are crazy. The previous French winner, sport icon Jeannie Longo, is on stage next to her. After 36 years, France has another tour winner.

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