"My level during the race was nowhere near good enough" - Pauline Ferrand-Prévot vows to return to Tour de France Femmes next year
CyclingMonday, 10 August 2026 at 14:00
Pauline Ferrand Prévot has vowed that she'll return to the Tour de France Femmes stronger after her doomed defence of her yellow jersey at the 2026 edition.
The French veteran found herself on the back-foot early in the race as she conceded time in the stage 4 time trial as well as during stage 5 before her general classification ambitions truly fell on the slopes of Mont Ventoux on stage 7.
After the stage, the defending champion fell ill and did not start Saturday's stage 8. The Tour until that point resembled a stark comparison to her 2025 success as she dominated the race when the parcours went uphill.
She said: "I had to abandon the race because I became ill on Friday evening. It was a difficult decision because I had really been looking forward to racing on my training roads, but making choices is part of life, and they are rarely easy."
In an honest reflection afterwards, the former world champion thanked fans for her support and claimed that she harbours no regrets about how she raced.
Ferrand Prévot refelcts on Tour de France Femmes
"I'm grateful for all your support along the road. You can't imagine how much it means to me," she said in a social media post.
"I have no regrets because I gave my best every single day."
Opening up on her preparation, she said an intense training camp didn't pay off and that her level was way off the pace as she vowed to return stronger in 2027.
"The preparation was extremely intense, but my level during the race was nowhere near good enough to play a role in this Tour. Hats off to everyone who produced such a high level in the peloton. You all make me a better athlete, and I'll come back stronger next year and try again," Ferrand-Prévot added.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
Tijssen on "real shame"
Team manager Rutger Tijssen echoed Ferrand Prévot's disappointment as Visma | Lease a Bike picked up the pieces, Femke de Vries' 12th place overall was one of the team's stronger performances in the final two stages.
"We came here with one big goal and unfortunately we weren't able to achieve it. That's a real shame, but it's great to see other riders step up when the main goal is no longer within reach, and to see the progress being made by several riders."
Looking towards the future, Visma will sit down to assess the Tour in the coming weeks and set out a plan for 2027.
"In the coming period, once Pauline is back to full fitness, we will evaluate our Tour de France Femmes campaign. That is, of course, part of the process. We will look at what we did and what we could have done better, and ultimately take those lessons with us into the remainder of the season and next year."
Gavin QuinnCycling Journalist
Gavin Quinn is a cycling journalist and ultra-distance cyclist with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University. Formerly the Press & Communications Officer for Cycling Ireland, Gavin has worked inside the national team at the World Championships and has reported for the Irish Mirror, Mirror UK, and The42.
His expertise is backed by elite-level access, having interviewed stars like Sam Bennett and Ben Healy, as well as immense personal endurance. In 2025, he completed a 12,000km solo cycle from Ireland to Vietnam, following a 4,600km tour across Europe. From the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to the gradients of the Tourmalet, Gavin’s writing focuses on the "romance and brutality" of the sport. Having visited 50+ countries, he brings a global, cultural perspective to his coverage of the pro peloton for CyclingUpToDate.
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- alot of pundits online especially twitter contributing to that. Riders dont deserve that. Alot of hate on twittermiguel10-08-2026
- Poggi has been cloned, she`s called Demi Vollering.
Senna196010-08-2026 - The thing is for a young rider to not get into controversial positions at all. She did impede Kasia and that brings consequences. If Kasia had crashed, it would be even more. Avoid dirty tactics or be prepared to take the social media consequences in your stridesabstractengineer10-08-2026
- > If Kasia had gone straight to FDJ Suez DS instead, there would have been no death threats. You confuse the effect with the cause. If Gery hadn't been unfair, there wouldn't have been any threats. > And the message that you are sending out here, that a young cyclist deserves to have her life threatened for controversial positioning is extraordinary. What??? I'm not supporting any threats to anyone. So go and be an idiot somewhere else.averagecyclist10-08-2026
- Especially since Gery received death threats!onegear2910-08-2026
- If Kasia had gone straight to FDJ Suez DS instead, there would have been no death threats. And the message that you are sending out here, that a young cyclist deserves to have her life threatened for controversial positioning is extraordinary.Hills3310-08-2026
- Pogacar is uae been there all career without them he is not the best in history. Creds to them for that and their the best team now too, its impossible to beat that combo. Dont know whats hard to grasp by that. And they raising del toro too to become great rider its hard for other teams to keep up with that.miguel10-08-2026
- When you trying to judge here please consider first: - would any of Visma domestiques do same to Pogačar? - would any of UAE domestiques do same to Jonas Vingegaard? The only answer that comes to mind is: NO, they respect each other. So why the hell Gery/FDJ had to do such a dirty and not necessary move? Shame on them.averagecyclist10-08-2026
- Video footage of the incident is unclear, but apparently Gery was acting as leadout for Demi, with Kasia on Demi's wheel. At a steep uphill turn, Gery then slowed down and moved to the side to let Demi through, but in the process, blocked Kasia who reacted to Demi's attack, but had to avoid Gery, thereby losing momentum. FDJ's DS Lars Boom confirmed that what happened was his specific instructions to Gery, " to stay in Vollering’s wheel until after the turn and then drop away quietly"..FredMan10-08-2026
- wait, she apologized to demi but not to gery? after all, gery took all the shit storm ...Ketterechts10-08-2026
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