"It’s only her first race" - Visma on Pauline Ferrand-Prevot's difficulties at Jebel Hafeet

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is returning to the road full time, but it is clear that the road to her high ambitions will be a long and difficult one. In the queen stage of the women's UAE Tour the French legend struggled, and finished only 18th, 3:39 minutes from stage winner Elisa Longo Borghini.

"Of course, it’s unfortunate that Pauline couldn’t achieve a top result, but if you think about it, it makes sense," team DS Jos van Emden shared in a press release from Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "Over the past few days, she’s done great work for the team and has looked strong multiple times. Even today, she was riding at the front for a long time."

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The 2014 World Champion has not raced a full-time schedule on the road since back in 2018, and after her return to Visma, she's made it clear that her priority now lies in this discipline - after she achieved virtually everything in Mountain Biking. The French rider, 32 years of age, is making a much awaited comeback as is for example Anna van der Breggen with SD Worx, and her evolution is an exciting prospect for the Dutch team who ultimately hope to have a Tour de France Femmes victory contender (specially one from France).

But at the UAE Tour, it's obvious that her level is still distant from the top climbers. She held her own in the wind-blasted first days of the race, but was dropped early on the climb to Jebel Hafeet this Saturday. "It’s disappointing that things didn’t go as hoped on the final climb, but we shouldn’t expect too much either—it’s only her first race," van Emden reassured.

She is en route to finishing 17th in the overall classification, but the team is not looking to put too much pressure on her, specially this early on in her comeback year. "We have two fast riders here, so tomorrow is another opportunity. We’ll see how everyone has recovered and then make a plan. In the first stage, we already sprinted to third place with Nienke Veenhoven, and we hope to fight for another strong result tomorrow," the Dutchman concluded.

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