"My ankle got infected before the start so I was really sick" — Ferrand-Prévot relives her stunning Roubaix win and eyes back to back Tour de France victory

After a 6-year hiatus, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has made one of the most successful returns to road cycling ever, winning Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the GC of the Tour de France Femmes and two stages, concluding her first full season back on the road at the very top of women’s cycling.

Her extraordinary year, however, also came with physical challenges. She spent part of this winter recovering from surgery to remove an ankle infection carried since Strade Bianche, a handicap that didn't prevent her from performing extremely well.

After finishing her season in Rwanda and enjoying a well deserved time off, she is already getting ready for the upcoming year. Between training sessions, the French star found time to give an interview to Rouleur.

Ferrand-Prévot spoke openly about her relationship with pressure, describing it as something she embraces rather than fears. Recalling her Olympic victory in mountain biking, she said, "It was so cool to feel this pressure. I love it. Just being in your bubble and you know that everyone is waiting for you and you have to make it that day."

She admitted that after the Olympics she wondered whether she would ever again feel that extraordinary sense of global expectation. But the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes, where she sealed her yellow jersey, brought that sensation back. "After the Olympics, I said to myself 'maybe you will never live this again', having this feeling of everyone waiting for you to win. But this last stage of the Tour de France was the best for me, because I had this feeling again."

With the yellow jersey secured this season, Ferrand-Prévot now wants to expand her goals across the classics, as she "only" won Paris-Roubaix in 2025. "I also want to try to win Flanders and Liège at the beginning of the season," she revealed.

She also said she plans to reach two peaks in 2026: in early spring and then again in July. "This year, coming back into road cycling, I was quite up and down I would say. I performed well in the Tour, but I would like next year to perform more at the beginning of the season and then in the Tour de France too. That's also another challenge for me to have two peaks in the season, and I really love this idea also."

Cycling is known for being a very strict sport in which everything is meticulously prepared. Still, despite all the sacrifices and countless hours of training cyclists must endure to reach their best level, that is a part of her job that Ferrand-Prévot loves.

"It's also what I like the most, the preparation, all the weeks before. You train like crazy. I really like this lifestyle also, I go to bed at eight, eight thirty, I wake up at five, I do my yoga and go training. I'm so focused. In the moment it's super hard because you can't see your family much or enjoy a drink or a good meal, but at the end when you win the Tour, you say 'OK, it was the best result possible' and what you did before, you forget about it."

The route of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes, which was revealed in late October, features an uphill time trial and a stage over Mont Ventoux before a finale in Nice, not far from Ferrand-Prévot’s home training roads.

She acknowledged the TT as a hurdle, as she does not excel in that terrain. "I'm thinking that it's a TT, but an uphill TT so it's not too bad. But I have to get on the TT bike again and it's really a new challenge for me and I really love that."

The queen stage inspires her, while the final weekend feels almost personal. "We have Mont Ventoux, and I love this climb and I know it quite well. And the finish is in Nice, and I live really close by, it will be on my training roads. The last stage is going to be amazing, because it's really what I do in training, so I'm really looking forward it already."

Even so, she remains grounded. "It will be a different approach. We also have to work on it as a team. Also it's not just because I won last year that I have to win it again next year. This is what I say to myself. I also like this pressure. I don't get weaker because of that, I think I have to use the pressure as a good support and in the end I will do my best and we will see."

Ferrand-Prévot’s dramatic Paris-Roubaix win was never part of the original plan, as she did not expect to ride it at the beginning of the season. "I was already two months in altitude and I got a bit bored so I said to my trainer 'can I do it please?'. I wanted to race for Marianne Vos, so we said 'OK, we don't do preparation for Roubaix, you just go with your shape and you will try to help Marianne the best way possible'."

To make things even crazier, she was affected by an infection right before the race. "My ankle got infected before the start so I was really sick, and the morning of the race my coach and the DS called me, and I didn't sleep all night so I thought for sure they would tell me 'Pauline, you won't race today and you just stay in bed and that's it'. But they came in the bus and they said 'Pauline, we just called the doctor, it's no risk for you and your health so you can race'. I said 'are you sure? Maybe not?' but they said 'you just take the start, do your best and we will see'."

She started without recon and absolutely no expectations to perform. "I didn't do any recon, I just went in blind. But sometimes when you don't really expect things, that's when they come to you. I just wanted to attack for Marianne to make the others work, and I think they just looked at each other a bit too much, and I won Roubaix. It was so nice to win but I felt so bad and I was so sick after the race that I didn't really enjoy it, so it was a mixed feeling."

Working with Vos, who signed a lifetime contract with the team this year, will again be central in 2026. Their first race together in 2025 (Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio, won by Elisa Balsamo in a reduced bunch sprint) was far from smooth. "I didn't want to be in her way, and she also didn't want to be in my way. So we both raced but we didn't have a plan."

However, post-race feedback helped to fix the issues. "After the race, we always do a debrief and everything, and I just said it was not good, we have to be better. You are Marianne Vos, I'm Pauline, and we need to stay who we are, and I think it was really fit. Then we decided that Marianne will do her own way, so at the Tour de France her going for stages and me going for GC, and we found a good way to work together but to stay our own person. I think it's important to respect the people that we are."