Pauline Ferrand-Prévot

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (; born 10February 1992) is a French cyclist who rides for UCI Women's World Tour team . In addition to road racing, Ferrand-Prévot has also competed in mountain biking, cyclo-cross and gravel cycling during her career, winning the world title in each discipline.

In mountain biking, Ferrand-Prévot won multiple times at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, taking cross-country (2015, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023), marathon (2019, 2022) and short track (2022, 2023) titles. She won the cross-country at the French National Mountain Bike Championships in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the cross-country mountain biking event.

In road cycling, she was the youngest competitor in the women's road race at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in which she finished eighth. In 2014, she won the road race at the UCI Road World Championships. She won the French National Road Race Championships in 2014 and 2015, and the French National Time Trial Championships three times between 2012 and 2014. After concentrating on other cycling disciplines, she returned to the road in 2025 – winning both Paris–Roubaix Femmes and Tour de France Femmes.

In cyclo-cross, she won the 2015 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, and the French National Cyclo-cross Championships in 2014, 2015 and 2018. In gravel cycling, she became the inaugural winner of the UCI Gravel World Championships in 2022.

During the 2015 season, aged just 23, she became the first person in the history of cycling to simultaneously hold the world road title, world cyclo-cross title and world cross-country mountain bike titles.

Career

2009–2010: Triple Junior World Champion In July 2009, Ferrand-Prévot took part in the European Road Championships as a first year junior, where she narrowly won the Junior European time trial title ahead of Ukrainian Hanna Solovey. Four days later she placed third in the road race. Later in the same month, she won the junior European cross country championships, taking her second European title in less than 10 days in two different disciplines. She then participated in the World Junior Championships, winning silver in the time trial behind Hanna Solovey. In late August Ferrand-Prévot won both National Road titles in the junior category. In September, she won her first world title at the World cross country championship, whilst in October, she won the junior Chrono des Nations.

Ferrand-Prévot began her 2010 season competing in cyclo-cross. For women, there is no junior category which meant that she had to compete with the elite athletes. She came eighth in the World Cyclo-cross championships, more than two minutes behind future teammate Marianne Vos. After the cyclo-cross season, she was victorious at the City of Pujols road race, one of the constituent rounds of the Coupe de France, and would go on to top the final ranking in the Coupe de France for juniors. Further, she won a stage of the Circuit de Borsele junior, finishing fourth overall. She competed in the junior mountain bike World Cup, winning the Offenburg round and finished second in the Houffalize round. In mid-July, at the European Championships, Ferrand-Prévot had to settle for silver in both the time trial and road race. Ferrand-Prévot then competed in the junior World road race Championships in Offida, Italy, finishing second in the time trial. She retained her junior national road titles. In September she defended successfully the junior Mountain bike world championships in MTB at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada, becoming the second rider after Nicole Cooke to hold both the road and mountain-bike world title in the same year.

2011–2013: The first professional years Ferrand-Prévot began the 2011 season with a second place in the national cyclo-cross championships. In late January, she took eighth in the World Championship cyclo-cross. She was then selected to participate in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio for the French national road team, the first round of the 2011 UCI Women's Road World Cup achieving ninth place. After a fourth place in Halle-Buizingen, she finished seventh in the women's La Flèche Wallonne atop the Mur de Huy. In May, she went on to participate in two rounds of the UCI Under-23 MTB World Cup taking victory in both rounds. Ferrand-Prévot stated in mid-May that she would continue to ride in both disciplines for at least two more seasons. After a victory in the Coupe de France she participated in the two North American rounds of the Under-23 MTB World Cup winning both rounds again.

In July, one year ahead of the London Olympics, she finished fifth in the pre-Olympic race. She then abandoned the MTB European championship. In August, after taking second place in the Val di Sole round of the Under-23 MTB World cup, she was crowned the overall winner. In November Ferrand-Prévot won the bronze medal at the European Cyclo-cross championships. In late November, announced they had signed her for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

In April 2012, Ferrand-Prévot achieved her first podium in the MTB World Cup, during the second round in Houffalize. She was then selected for the Olympic Mountain bike test event. In June, at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, she won her first elite national time trial championship, completing the loop in 36 minutes and 55 seconds, beating Audrey Cordon-Ragot by 17 seconds. She also won the Under-23 title. In July, she finished fourth in the elite national Mountain Bike championships but won the Under-23 title.

2014: The career year

Early in the season, Ferrand-Prévot won her first elite national cyclo-cross title. In late March, she finished fifth at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio. In April she won the La Flèche Wallonne Féminine ahead of Lizzie Armitstead and Elisa Longo Borghini. In July, Ferrand-Prévot came second in the Giro Rosa just 15 seconds behind teammate Marianne Vos becoming the second French woman to reach the podium of the Giro Rosa after the Catherine Marsal victory in 1990. She later took the overall victory at the Emakumeen Euskal Bira, her first stage race win, while collecting two stage wins.

In July, Ferrand-Prévot became the first French cyclist to accumulate four national titles in a single season (road race, time trial, cyclo-cross and mountain bike). She also recorded two wins in the elite Mountain Bike World Cup and finally finished tenth overall in the Mountain Bike World Cup. After taking victory at the Under-23 European Cross-Country Championships, she won her first world title in the mixed relay.

Late in the road season, Ferrand-Prévot took part in the Grand Prix de Plouay, last round of the Road World Cup, taking 3rd place. She later finished sixth overall in the competition. In September, 19 years after Jeannie Longo won the fabled rainbow jersey, she became World Road Race champion in Ponferrada, Spain. Later in the season, she finished second in the Vélo d'or Français behind Jean-Christophe Péraud and ahead of track World Champion François Pervis. Ferrand-Prévot was also selected "international cyclist of the year" by the American publication VeloNews.

2015: World champion in cyclo-cross and cross-country

Ferrand-Prévot started the season off with retaining her national cyclo-cross championship. A week of ahead of the cyclo-cross world championships, she finished on the podium in the final race of the cyclo-cross World Cup in Hoogerheide. In January, she won the Cyclo-cross world title, ahead of Sanne Cant and seven-time champion Marianne Vos. She finished runner-up at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio behind Lizzie Armitstead. In June, Ferrand-Prévot announced she had been suffering from sciatica which had ruined the start of her season. She returned to competition in the French national road race championships retaining her road title but only finishing third in the time trial. At the Giro Rosa, she finished ninth in the prologue but lost nearly two minutes on the leaders after the second stage. Winner of Stage 5 at Aprica, she finished 6th overall.

In August, Ferrand-Prévot started her mountain bike season with the goal of achieving a third world title in three different disciplines. She finished third in the Mont-Sainte-Anne round of World Cup and won the Windham round by more than a minute. On the road, she suffered a fall in the last kilometer of La Course by Le Tour de France as she did in 2014, but then went on to come third again at the Grand Prix de Plouay.

In the World mountain biking championship, she retained her mixed relay title (with Jordan Sarrou, Anthony Phillip and Victor Koretzky) and then added the World cross-country title.

In late November 2015 Ferrand-Prévot acquired a tibial plateau fracture during training, forcing her to refrain from racing for at least six weeks and miss most of the 2015–2016 cyclocross season.

2016

Ferrand-Prévot endured a difficult 2016 season. She competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, however she only finished 26th in the road race and abandoned the cross-country mountain bike race due to struggling with the effects of the tibial fracture she had sustained during the winter. She subsequently ended her season after the Games. In September 2016, after five years with the Rabobank team it was announced that Ferrand-Prévot would join for the 2017 season.

2018 She competed in the Cross Country European Championships in Glasgow, finishing 2nd behind Jolanda Neff.

2022 Ferrand-Prévot became the inaugural winner of the UCI Gravel World Championships in the women's race. She also became the first person to ever win the World Championships for all three disciplines on the mountain bike: Cross Country Olympic (XCO), Cross Country Marathon (XCM) and Cross Country Short Track (XCC).

2024: Olympic mountain bike Gold At the 2024 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the cross-country mountain biking event in front of a home crowd.

2025: Returning to the road

In 2025, Ferrand-Prévot returned to road cycling for the first time since 2018, signing a three year deal with Visma–Lease a Bike. She finished third at Strade Bianche, second at Tour of Flanders, before winning Paris–Roubaix Femmes – her first win on the road since 2015. Following her win at Paris–Roubaix Femmes, Ferrand-Prévot expressed that her main goal was to win the Tour de France Femmes. On 2 August, in the penultimate stage of the women's Tour de France, she broke away from Sarah Gigante in the final climb up the Col de la Madeleine, taking the yellow jersey with a 2:37 lead on Gigante in the general standings and 3:18 ahead of Demi Vollering, and she went on to win the overall race.

Personal life Ferrand-Prévot comes from a cycling family: her uncle Ludovic Dubau was 1994 French champion in cross-country mountain biking and competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Her nickname PFP comes from her initials.

Career achievements Major championships timeline

Cyclo-cross

2009–2010 Coupe de France 2nd Saint-Quentin 3rd Besançon 3rd National Championships 2010–2011 2nd National Championships Coupe de France 2nd Saint-Jean-de-Monts 3rd Saverne 3rd Miramas UCI World Cup 5th Pontchâteau 2011–2012 1st Overall Coupe la France 1st Rodez 2nd Lignières-en-Berry 3rd Besançon 2nd National Championships Superprestige 2nd Hamme

UCI World Cup 5th Heusden-Zolder 2012–2013 1st Overall Coupe de France 1st Pontchâteau 2nd Besançon 2nd National Championships 2013–2014 1st National Championships Coupe de France 1st Flamanville 2nd Kalmthout UCI World Cup 4th Rome 5th Namur 2014–2015 1st UCI World Championships 1st National Championships Superprestige 2nd Diegem 2nd Overijse 2nd Hasselt UCI World Cup 3rd Heusden-Zolder 3rd Hoogerheide 5th Namur 2017–2018 1st National Championships 1st Overijse Superprestige 2nd Diegem UCI World Cup 3rd Nommay 4th Heusden-Zolder 5th Namur

UCI World Cup results Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points 2008–2009 KAL TAB PIJ KOK IGO NOM HOF ROU MIL 53 6 2009–2010 TRE PLZ NOM KOK IGO KAL ZOL ROU HOO 28 34 2010–2011 AIG PLZ KOK KAL ZOL PON HOO 13 136 2011–2012 PLZ TAB KOK IGO NAM ZOL LIE HOO 23 59 2012–2013 TAB PLZ KOK ROU NAM ZOL ROM HOO 25 55 2013–2014 VAL TAB KOK NAM ZOL ROM NOM 20 76 2014–2015 VAL KOK MIL NAM ZOL HOO 11 125 2017–2018 IOW WAT KOK BOG ZEV NAM ZOL NOM HOO 23 180 2022–2023 WAT FAY TAB MAA BER OVE HUL ANT DUB VAL GAV ZON BEN BES 43 19

Gravel 2022 1st UCI World Championships

Mountain bike

2009 1st Cross-country, UCI World Junior Championships 1st Cross-country, UEC European Junior Championships 3rd Cross-country, National Junior Championships 2010 1st Cross-country, UCI World Junior Championships UCI Junior XCO World Cup 1st Offenburg 2nd Houffalize 2011 1st Overall UCI Under-23 XCO World Cup 1st Dalby Forest 1st Offenburg 1st Mont-Sainte-Anne 1st Windham 2nd Val di Sole 3rd Nové Město

2012 1st Cross-country, National Under-23 Championships 4th Cross-country, UEC European Under-23 Championships UCI XCO World Cup 4th Houffalize 2013 1st Cross-country, National Under-23 Championships 1st Saint-Pompon

2nd Cross-country, National Championships 2014 1st Team relay, UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country, UEC European Under-23 Championships 1st Cross-country, National Championships 1st Cross-country, National Under-23 Championships UCI XCO World Cup 1st Nové Město 1st Albstadt 3rd Méribel 1st Lons-le-Saunier 2015 UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country 1st Team relay 1st Cross-country, National Championships UCI XCO World Cup 1st Windham 3rd Nové Město 3rd Mont-Sainte-Anne 1st Saint-Pompon 2016 1st Team relay, UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country, National Championships 2017 1st Roc d'Azur UCI XCO World Cup 2nd Mont-Sainte-Anne UCI World Championships

2018

UCI XCO World Cup 2nd Stellenbosch 3rd Nové Město 4th Val di Sole 4th La Bresse UCI XCC World Cup 2nd Nové Město 2019 UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country 1st Marathon 1st Cross-country, National Championships UCI XCO World Cup 1st Val di Sole 1st Snowshoe 3rd Lenzerheide 5th Les Gets UCI XCC World Cup 1st Lenzerheide 2nd Les Gets 2nd Snowshoe 3rd Val di Sole Internazionali d'Italia Series 2nd La Thuile French Cup 3rd Jeumont Swiss Bike Cup 3rd Leukerbad 2020 1st Cross-country, UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country, UEC European Championships UCI XCO World Cup 1st Nové Město II 3rd Nové Město I UCI XCC World Cup 2nd Nové Město I 2nd Nové Město II 3rd Marathon, National Championships 2021 1st Cross-country, UEC European Championships UCI XCC World Cup 1st Albstadt 1st Les Gets 2nd Cross-country, National Championships UCI XCO World Cup 2nd Albstadt 4th Nové Město 4th Les Gets 5th Leogang French Cup 2nd Lons-le-Saunier Internazionali d'Italia Series 2nd Nalles

Swiss Bike Cup 3rd Leukerbad 2022 UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country 1st Short track 1st Marathon National Championships 1st Short track 2nd Cross-country 2nd Marathon UCI XCO World Cup 1st Val di Sole 4th Lenzerheide UCI XCC World Cup 1st Petropolis 1st Val di Sole 2nd Albstadt Ökk Bike Revolution 1st Huttwil 1st Roc d'Azur

French Cup 2nd Le Dévoluy 3rd Overall Cape Epic (with Robyn de Groot) 2023 UCI World Championships 1st Cross-country 1st Short track UCI XCC World Cup 1st Leogang 3rd Lenzerheide 3rd Val di Sole XCO French Cup 1st Guéret UCI XCO World Cup 2nd Nové Město 3rd Vallnord 3rd Les Gets 4th Lenzerheide Ökk Bike Revolution 2nd Chur 2024

1st Short track, UEC European Championships UCI XCO World Cup 1st Nové Město 1st Val di Sole Shimano Super Cup 1st La Nucia 1st Banyoles XCO French Cup 1st Marseille Ökk Bike Revolution 1st Chur Swiss Bike Cup 1st Rivera 1st Nals UCI XCC World Cup 2nd Nové Město 2nd Val di Sole XCC French Cup 2nd Marseille

UCI World Cup results Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rank Points 2012 PIE HOU NOV LAB MON WIN ISE 19 376 2013 ALB NOV VAL AND MON HAF 35 164 2014 PIE CAI NOV ALB MON WIN MER 10 660 2015 NOV ALB LEN MON WIN VAL 10 320 2016 CAI ALB LAB LEN MON AND 71 32 2017 NOV ALB AND LEN MON VAL 17 437 2018 STE ALB NOV VAL AND MON LAB 6 882 2019 ALB NOV AND LES VAL LEN SNO 4 1076 2020 LEN VAL LES NOV NOV 1 475 2021 ALB NOV LEO LES LEN SNO 6 720 2022 PET ALB NOV LEO LEN AND SNO MON VAL 11 941 2023 NOV LEN LEO VAL AND LES SNO MON 8 1157 2024 MAI ARA NOV VAL CRA LES PLA MON 25 630

Road

2009 UEC European Junior Championships 1st Time trial

National Junior Championships 1st Road race 1st Time trial UCI World Junior Championships

2010 UCI World Junior Championships 1st Road race

National Junior Championships 1st Road race 1st Time trial UEC European Junior Championships

2011 4th Time trial, National Championships 4th Halle-Buizingen 5th Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs 5th Grand Prix Nicolas Frantz 7th La Flèche Wallonne 9th Trofeo Alfredo Binda 2012 (1 pro win) 1st Time trial, National Championships 1st Time trial, National Under-23 Championships 1st Sprints classification, Holland Ladies Tour 2nd Omloop van het Hageland 5th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 7th Trofeo Alfredo Binda 7th 7-Dorpenomloop Aalburg 8th Overall Festival Luxembourgeois Elsy Jacobs 8th Road race, Olympic Games 10th Ronde van Drenthe 10th Holland Hills Classic 2013 (1) 1st Time trial, National Championships 1st Time trial, National Under-23 Championships

3rd Dwars door de Westhoek 4th Grand Prix Leende 8th Overall La Route de France 1st Young rider classification 2014 (7) 1st Road race, UCI World Championships National Championships 1st Road race 1st Time trial National Under-23 Championships 1st Road race 1st Time trial 1st Overall Emakumeen Euskal Bira 1st Stages 1 & 3 1st La Flèche Wallonne 2nd Overall Giro Rosa 1st Young rider classification 3rd GP de Plouay 5th Overall Festival Luxembourgeois Elsy Jacobs

1st Young rider classification 5th Trofeo Alfredo Binda 6th EPZ Omloop van Borsele 2015 (2) National Championships 1st Road race 3rd Time trial 2nd Trofeo Alfredo Binda 3rd GP de Plouay 5th Overall Festival Luxembourgeois Elsy Jacobs 6th Road race, UCI World Championships 6th Overall Giro Rosa 1st Stage 5 7th Tour of Flanders 8th La Flèche Wallonne 2016 4th Pajot Hills Classic 8th Tour of Flanders 2017 2nd GP de Plouay 8th Amstel Gold Race 2018 6th Trofeo Alfredo Binda 7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 9th Overall Setmana Ciclista Valenciana 9th Overall The Women's Tour 2021 5th Time trial, National Championships 2025 (4) 1st Overall Tour de France 1st Stages 8 & 9 1st Paris–Roubaix 2nd Tour of Flanders 3rd Strade Bianche 2026 2nd Tour of Flanders 3rd Paris–Roubaix 7th La Flèche Wallonne

Awards and honours Velo magazine – International Cyclist of the year: 2014 French Sportswoman of the Year: 2014, 2015, 2020

Orders Knight of the Legion of Honour: 2024