"I'm 33 years old. I know what I'm doing" - Pauline Ferrand-Prevot hits back at comments on her body weight again

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has achieved something historic this year, having won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France Femmes on the same year, the one where she returned to focus on road cycling full-time. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider has experienced a few extremely successful months but not always was her name brought up in positive light. She has put out another statement regarding the comments on her current weight.

In an interview with Sporza following the Tour, the Frenchwoman explained her weight loss: "I lost weight purely for this race. I did it with a lot of help from the team. My weight loss was somewhat controlled and intelligent. It wasn't an illness. There was a lot of fuss about it, but I don't take that personally."

However the discourse did not stop, and barely slowed down, over the past few weeks, and the 33-year old continues to find herself being used as an example. Something which naturally does not please her.

"What if we stopped with this? Guys, I'm 33 years old. I know what I'm doing," she wrote in a recent Instagram story. This doesn't come as a surprise taking into consideration that criticism towards her way continues to flow. "And for those who used to follow me, I've always had the habit of posting what I eat quite intuitively. But I admit that since this 'controversy,' I'm thinking twice before doing it, and that's not right."

Recently, Wout Poels argued that the discourse doesn't take place in men's cycling as much, but knows what it's like to be in the receiving end: "I thought it was a shame that all that fuss about her weight arose. In fact, I thought it was scandalous what was said. About people who thought it was healthy or not. I thought they were such sore losers".