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CHATEL LES PORTES DU SOLEIL, France (Velo) – Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has hit back at her online critics, who have suggested that she lost too much weight in her quest to win the yellow jersey.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, who became the first French winner of a men’s or women’s Tour since Bernaud Hinault in 1985, revealed after her triumph that she had received critical messages on social media during the week about her weight loss.
Ferrand-Prévot, 33, said that her “preparation was so hard for the Tour de France and I don’t really see myself doing the same again”.
But she defended the steps she took en route to winning yellow, just four months after winning Paris-Roubaix.
“Everyone prepares the way they want. For Roubaix I was much heavier because I knew I needed to be heavier to have power on the flats,” she told the press in Châtel, hours after winning her second successive stage and topping the GC with a winning margin of 3:42.
“For this race I knew I had to climb for one-and-a-half hours over the Col de la Madeleine [on stage 8] and I tried to make the most of it. You need to adapt to the terrain you have.
“I also know that this shape that I have now I will not keep forever. It’s just for the Tour de France. It’s also my job to be the best as possible. We know this is an endurance sport, and to climb you need to have a [high] watts per kilogram. I made the choice, I worked hard for it.”
Prior to the Tour starting, Ferrand-Prévot hadn’t raced in over 10 weeks, since she abandoned the Vuelta a España Femenina.
In that period, she lost weight but managed to maintain her power. She insisted that her current physique will not be permanent.
“Between Roubaix and the start of the Tour, I lost four kilos that I hope to put back on fairly quickly.
“I don’t want to stay like this – I know it’s not 100% healthy,” she continued. “But we also had a good plan with the team’s nutritionist and everything is in control. I didn’t do anything extreme and I still had power left after nine days of racing.
“It’s a tricky subject because you have to find the limit, but I also know I can’t stay like this forever. It’s the choice I made.
“I had quite a lot of complaints on Instagram about it, people saying I was not a good example for young people. But I also think parents should educate their kids and say to them, ‘Pauline is like this because she’s preparing for the Tour de France – it’s not forever’.
“Everyone needs to understand that it’s also our job to be the best as possible. I just do my job the best way I can and that’s it.”
Demi Vollering:’I just really hope that young girls now don’t think they need to be super skinny’
Demi Vollering, who finished second and who has now finished on the podium in all four editions of the reborn Tour, was also asked about the topic in her post-race press conference.
The 2023 Tour winner pointed out that she is taller and naturally more built than many of her competitors, including Ferrand-Prévot, and therefore losing additional weight would not necessarily help her to win a second Tour title.
“I can try to lose more weight, but in the end I don’t want to be skin over bones. Also, I am a lot taller than them, and I can never be as light as [Sarah] Gigante and Pauline,” the Dutchwoman said.
“Coming into this Tour de France, we also considered whether I was going to lose more weight or not, but after the Tour de Suisse I got sick and then the biggest priority was to be healthy again, instead of losing weight when sick and then going on altitude.
“You don’t want to lose too much weight on altitude because when you’re there your body needs to recover. In the end, I think I have a pretty good weight right now.
“I was the first of the ‘heavier’ weights yesterday, and I am just the bigger rider – I cannot do much about that, that’s nature.”
Vollering has been vocal about her mental health struggles in the past, and she said that she doesn’t want fans watching at home or at the side of the road to think that they have to be extremely slim to emulate their heroes.
“For me it’s not too difficult because I don’t have problems [with her weight]. In my eyes, health is always the most important,” she continued.
“I am also proud of my heavy weight because I want to be an example, and I want to lead by example.
“I just really hope in the future I can win climbing races again with my heavy weight, and that I can show girls that you don’t have to be super super skinny, and that you can believe that if you have the power, you train hard, you can make it, even if you’re heavier.
“For me it’s also a nice challenge to keep going for big wins in the mountains with the body I have.
“It’s not difficult for me personally, but I know a lot of girls, and riders in general, struggle with this. For me it’s not the case, but I just really hope that young girls now don’t think they need to be super skinny to ride in the mountains.”
Also see:
A huge performance by Ferrand-Prévot, taking back to back stage wins and winning the overall by almost four minutes. The Olympic MTB’s switch back to road racing has been a massive success
velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-ra…
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