“Stop reducing women’s sport to clickbait” - Orla Chennaoui calls out weight-focused coverage of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour de France Femmes win

When Pauline Ferrand-Prévot stormed to victory at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, it should have been a crowning moment in an already legendary career — a triumphant return to the road for France’s most decorated cyclist, and a long-awaited home victory after four decades of near misses. Instead, much of the post-race conversation has zeroed in on her body weight.

This week, TNT Sports presenter Orla Chennaoui publicly criticised the tone of the media coverage, calling out what she sees as a troubling tendency to reduce women's performances to narratives about weight loss, appearance, or body transformation — particularly when those narratives eclipse more nuanced stories of preparation, sacrifice, and mastery.

“How about we STOP making ALL the reporting on this most dynamic and exciting of races about weight?” Chennaoui wrote in an Instagram story. “Yes, it’s an issue, and deserves discussion. But we’re now reducing her win to one single factor... Stop. Reducing. Women’s. Sports. To. Clickbait.”

Ferrand-Prévot’s triumph — built on months of targeted training, altitude isolation, and discipline — was the culmination of a calculated shift back to the road after years spent dominating in mountain biking. She claimed Paris–Roubaix earlier in the season before capping it off with an emphatic Tour win. But much of the media attention has fixated on her reported 4kg weight loss — nearly 10% of her body weight — and her meticulous monitoring of body composition.

To Chennaoui, that singular focus betrays the breadth of what it takes to win at this level. “All the other ways Pauline Ferrand-Prévot worked her backside off to win… How about a breakdown of the mental, as well as physical preparation it takes to win the biggest bike race of them all?” she asked. “Give these athletes the breadth of reporting their achievements deserve.”

However, the criticism isn’t just coming from the media. Within the peloton, several top riders have voiced similar concerns — not about Ferrand-Prévot’s strategy per se, but about how it’s being received and represented.

Among the most vocal is Swiss time trial specialist and Olympic medallist Marlen Reusser, who admitted in a recent Tages-Anzeiger interview: “We secretly hoped that she wouldn’t be successful.”

For Reusser — who is also a trained physician — the concern is less about individual choices and more about the precedent they set. “When riders are this successful by becoming so thin, it puts pressure on all of us,” she said.

Reusser didn’t question Ferrand-Prévot’s professionalism or talent. Instead, she pointed to the influence such visible transformation can have on younger riders. She recalled a teammate asking, “Did you see? She checks her skinfolds before deciding whether to eat.”

“As a fellow athlete, I admire her. As a doctor, I’m concerned,” Reusser added. “Is it really harmless if the deficiency is only short-term? Where is the line between smart performance management and harm?... We’ve worked for years to educate against eating disorders. But what’s the takeaway for a 17-year-old without a nutritionist, seeing this kind of body ideal being celebrated?"

Runner-up Demi Vollering, one of the most successful riders in the modern peloton, added her voice to the conversation after her own experience with the press post-race. “Around 80% of the questions I received in the final press conference were about my weight,” she wrote in a candid Instagram post. “Whether I planned to lose more. Whether that would be the way to win the Tour de France again.”

Vollering, who arrived at the Tour in top form and with a lean build already, pushed back firmly against the implication that further weight loss was the key to improvement. “There’s no single path to success,” she wrote. “I make, and will continue to make, every decision in my career by putting my health first. Always.”

Like Chennaoui and Reusser, Vollering raised concerns about the silent messaging this kind of coverage can send. “Young girls are watching us,” she warned. “Sometimes, what they see quietly plants a seed… and becomes something harmful.”

The concern here isn’t about silencing discussion of weight in cycling. It’s a legitimate, complex part of high-performance sport — especially in climbing-heavy stage races. But the growing chorus from athletes and commentators is about balance. When weight becomes the only lens through which women’s victories are analysed, something essential is lost.

As Chennaoui puts it: “Be better, cycling media. Please.”

Her plea is not to ignore difficult topics — but to report them with the same depth, respect, and nuance afforded to male riders. That means covering strategy, execution, adaptation, pressure, and character — not just kilograms.

Ferrand-Prévot’s 2025 Tour de France Femmes win is historic. It was built on talent, experience, commitment, and control. Her story is worth telling in full — not just weighed.