“Stop reducing women’s sport to clickbait” - Orla Chennaoui calls out weight-focused coverage of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour de France Femmes win
Cycling
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.”
Ferrand-Prevot stormed to a dominant win at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes
“As a doctor, I’m concerned”
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?"
Vollering: “No single path to success”
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.”
Vollering couldn't match Ferrand-Prevot in the mountains
A call for better storytelling
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.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And yet, it attracts people, even you. What’s more, it attracts the rival fanboys to fill cyberspace with endless pointless my hero is better than your hero blabla that’s all been heard before and only helps sell the site as an advertising platform. You know what the solution is but most can’t resist. No different than women who follow and discuss celebs through gossip magazines.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
- "was a headliner at the Tour de France" Nobody cared about Piddie. Only rivals that were there for Pogi, Jonas, Remco, Sexias, Lipo, Del Toro and they were all expected to lose. Piddie was not even in any conversation.abstractengineer08-11-2026
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