TakeWorlds5 weeks ago
Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's season is over. This isn't a rider skipping Worlds after one bad race — it's a title defence that never found form, ending in a season with no wins at all.
Ferrand-Prévot never finished higher than eighth on any stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes, and lost 10:44 to Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney on the Mont Ventoux stage before abandoning ahead of stage 8. Her spring podiums — second at the Tour of Flanders, third at Paris-Roubaix — now read less like form and more like a ceiling she couldn't push past. A year after becoming the first Frenchwoman to win the Tour de France Femmes and taking Paris-Roubaix Femmes in the same season, she leaves 2026 without a single win.
Sources
Season over for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot | CyclingnewsReigning champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot pulls out of Tour de France Femmes ahead of stage 8 | Cycling WeeklyPauline Ferrand-Prévot withdraws from Tour de France Femmes 2026, ends title defence before penultimate stagePauline Ferrand-Prévot withdraws from world championships in Montréal
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