Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot abandoned the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed before the start of Saturday\u2019s 8th stage that the defending champion is out, sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, Pauline was not feeling well this morning. In consultation with the medical staff, it has been decided that she will not start today. We wish Pauline a speedy recovery,\u201d read a note on social media.<\/p>\n
Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s early exit marks the end of a yellow jersey defense that never truly got started.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old hemorrhaged time to her pre-race rivals in every key GC stage of the Tour.<\/p>\n
She finished atop Mont Ventoux on Friday in 14th overall, 15 minutes behind new GC leader Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney.<\/p>\n
Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and her entourage might be left wondering what went wrong Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Frenchwoman followed a similar path toward this year\u2019s Tour de France Femmes as she did in 2025.<\/p>\n
Last year, her \u201crace less, train lots\u201d approach to her road comeback brought her marquee victories at Paris-Roubaix Femmes and the Tour.<\/p>\n
This year, Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot hit podium finishes at Flanders and Roubaix in April, but her 2026 palmar\u00e8s went south ever since.<\/p>\n
Unpacking a meticulous training program and power bests<\/h2>\n
It soon became apparent that something was up with Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot at this year\u2019s Tour de France Femmes.<\/p>\n
Even a huge block of TT training and work on her aero tuck couldn\u2019t save her from significant losses against the clock on stage 4.<\/p>\n
One day later, PFP dropped to 5 minutes back on Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser after a hilly 5th stage that should have suited her.<\/p>\n
Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot conceded defeat after she was blown away Wednesday on stage 5.<\/p>\n
However, she insisted her preparation wasn\u2019t the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my level is quite good,\u201d Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot told reporters at the finish Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s just that the others are better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my level is great. Yesterday I did my best 10-minute power on the last climb. So I think I\u2019m not too bad, but it\u2019s just that the level is much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s racing schedule for the remainder of 2026 is unknown.<\/p>\n
The MTB world championships at the end of this month might come too soon for the reigning Olympic cross-country champion. The Montr\u00e9al road worlds in September could be an option.<\/p>\n
But first, the uncomfortable Tour de France Femmes debrief.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll need to take a step back, draw the right conclusions, and come back stronger next year,\u201d Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot told reporters Friday after her title defense fully crumbled on Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289489467.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated August 8, 2026 07:18AM Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot abandoned the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Saturday. Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed before the start of Saturday\u2019s 8th stage that the defending champion is out, sick. \u201cUnfortunately, Pauline was not feeling well this morning. In consultation with the medical staff, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2083966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2083966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}