Pauline Ferrand-Prévot searching for 'joy' on bike after 'nothing' at Tour de France Femmes

After a personally disappointing season, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has said she wants to re-find "joy" back on the bike.

In a lengthy Instagram post shared at the weekend with pictures of her wedding to Dylan van Baarle, the former Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion spoke about her 2026 and ending her season early.

The 34-year-old did not race after pulling out of the Tour before stage eight in August, while she was over 10 minutes behind the race lead. Despite second at the Tour of the Flanders and third at Paris-Roubaix Femmes, 35th at the Vuelta Femenina and a DNS at the Tour did not reach her heady goals.

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"I was so over focus[ed] on winning Tour again that I lost the joy of the everyday life," the Frenchwoman explained. "It was all about being and doing more to be the best.

"Strangely I faced some down times in my career before, where I felt sad and lost, but I never really experienced the fact to do everything so good and to ended up with nothing. And I think it’s one of the reason of my "non-understanding" state of the last few months."

Ferrand-Prévot had immediate success returning to full-time road racing in 2025, winning Roubaix and then the Tour in a triumphant year, after another golden season in 2024 saw her win mountain bike gold at the Paris Olympics. However, with 2026 proving trickier, a reset was required.

"My never-ending off-season was so needed," she continued. "It will be a long way to find a [decent] level again, as I’m fully unshaped. But the most important for now is to find back the joy to be on the bike."

Her off-season has also not been easy, with her then fiancée Van Baarle crashing days before their wedding.

"I remembered being happy when winning the Olympics, Tour, or Roubaix, but this feeling of getting married to Dylan with the presence of the most important people in my life was another level of joy, happiness and fulfilment," Ferrand-Prévot added, signing off as Pauline van Baarle.

"Experiencing this feeling of being so happy while not sacrificing everything or being extreme was something I never experienced before. On that last sentence, I will take note for the future. Again, MERCI for the support over my difficult 2026 season. I’m sure I will come back stronger."

Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.

Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.