Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to sign for Visma-Lease a Bike on three-year contract

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, the only female professional cyclist signed to Ineos Grenadiers, is set to join Visma-Lease a Bike in 2025 and make her long-awaited return to road racing, over a decade on from winning the World Championships road race.

As first reported by Wielerflits, Ferrand-Prévot has enjoyed successful negotiations with the Dutch Women's WorldTeam and GCN understands that the Frenchwoman will sign a three-year contract, running from 2025 to the end of 2027.

In Ferrand-Prévot, Visma-Lease a Bike believe to have found themselves a leader for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and the 32-year-old will join the team's stable of multidisciplinary talents that includes Marianne Vos and Fem van Empel.

Two weeks ago, Ferrand-Prévot announced that she would be retiring from mountain biking at the end of 2024 and it has long been the Frenchwoman's ambition to return to road racing after this year's Olympic Games.

Read more: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to retire from mountain biking at the end of 2024

In Paris, Ferrand-Prévot will hope to become an Olympic medalist for the first time, with the added incentive of riding what will likely be her first and only Olympic Games in her home country. The reigning world XCO champion has been building towards this goal ever since signing for Ineos Grenadiers at the start of 2023.

In recent months, the 32-year-old has taken a plethora of wins in mountain biking, most recently at the UCI World Cup in Nové Město. Just weeks earlier, her victory at the French Cup in Marseille marked Ineos Grenadiers' 500th as a team since their launch in 2010. These wins were taken aboard the Pinarello Dogma XC that Ferrand-Prévot helped to design alongside fellow off-road star, Tom Pidcock.

Despite Ferrand-Prévot's success over the past two seasons, Ineos Grenadiers have ultimately opted against starting a fully-fledged women's team and GCN understands that there are no plans in place to do so in 2025. With no option to return to the highest level of road racing with Ineos Grenadiers, Ferrand-Prévot has been forced to look elsewhere.

Visma-Lease a Bike a natural fit

In Visma-Lease a Bike, the Frenchwoman has found a team that has long supported the off-road ambitions of its cyclists, with bike manufacturer Cervélo working alongside the likes of Wout van Aert and Vos to design their most recent cyclo-cross bike. The Dutch team is also home to Ferrand-Prévot's partner, Dylan van Baarle.

Wielerflits reports that Van Baarle was instrumental in explaining the team's vision to the 32-year-old, while Ferrand-Prévot can also look forward to racing alongside an old teammate in Vos. The duo spent five years together with Rabobank at the beginning of Ferrand-Prévot's road career.

Additionally, under the tutelage of Vos and Ferrand-Prévot, Visma-Lease a Bike will hope to see their young star Van Empel blossom further. The two-time cyclo-cross world champion has yet to take a win on the road, but at 21 years of age and with many top-10s to her name, the Dutchwoman has plenty of room to grow.

Signing a contract for the next three years, Ferrand-Prévot will be determined to make her debut at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift next year. The 2025 edition will come seven years after Ferrand-Prévot last raced a road race away from the French national championships.

The Frenchwoman managed top 10s in both Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes in 2018, but in truth, mountain biking had been her priority since 2015. Ferrand-Prévot's best years on the road were 2014 and 2015, in which she became the world road race champion and finished runner-up at the Giro d'Italia Women.

Turning 33 before next year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, fans of the Women's WorldTour will be keen to see how the more experienced Ferrand-Prévot stacks up against the sport's younger Grand Tour stars in reigning champion Demi Vollering and the likes of Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek).

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