Women’s cycling has just experienced a weight shift. We learn this Wednesday, Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt leaves BMC, her team for two seasons, for the English of Ineos Grenadiers, who had never signed a woman so far. The famous formation announced it on social networks.
“Olympic gold is the only medal missing from my list, and that’s the one I want the most,” said the Frenchwoman, obsessed with Paris 2024. That’s why I decided to join Ineos. I still have many things to learn and this is the best team that can help me achieve this goal. »
The four-time cross-country mountain bike world champion (2015, 2019, 2020, 2022) joins Olympic champion in the discipline Tom Pidcock. Enough to improve a little more with the older ones in a mini cell. “It’s super interesting, I would have my cocoon around me but it won’t be two teams, they integrate me into theirs, so that it makes a single team, she describes to L’Equipe. I will be able to enjoy going to train with them, that’s what I liked about the project. »
The 30-year-old Frenchwoman will have the ultimate in equipment and human resources to refine her technique and her physique. She has already competed in three cyclo-cross races at the Olympics but has never done better than 10th place in 2021 in Tokyo.
The Scottish Mountain Bike Worlds in August 2023, where she will defend her title, will be an opportunity to make a first stage point. This year, Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt won four rainbow jerseys (cross-country and short-track in Les Gets, as well as the mountain bike marathon in Denmark in mid-September and the first gravel world title awarded in early October). After the Olympic deadline, she does not refrain from returning a little on the road, where she has already excelled (world champion 2014, double champion of France 2014-2015).