'I've climbed Mont Ventoux quite a lot of times' – Pauline Ferrand-Prévot takes expert preparation into Tour de France Femmes defence

Mountain recons, time trial tuning, and the knowledge of home roads are all part of the meticulous preparation Pauline Ferrand-Prévot hopes will carry her to a second Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift title next week.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider will start the race this Saturday in Lausanne as the yellow jersey favourite, having won last year on debut by more than three and a half minutes ahead of Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ).

Addressing the media in a press conference on Wednesday, the Frenchwoman explained she has been plotting her title defence ever since the route was announced last October. She now feels ready, “physically and mentally”, to take on her big goal of the season.

“I was speaking with my trainer just before and I think everything is like we expected it to be,” she said.

“My goal since the beginning is to be able to be 100% for the Tour de France. I never really had in mind to win all the races [I competed in this season]. I know that I needed specific preparation to be able to win races. I just picked my battles and I chose the Tour de France as a battle.”

Last year, Ferrand-Prévot sealed the yellow jersey with a crushing solo win on stage eight’s summit finish on the Col de la Madeleine, where she drew out more than three minutes over Vollering. The race visits another iconic Tour mountain this edition in Mont Ventoux – on what's sure to be a decisive stage seven – and the Frenchwoman has done her best to familiarise herself with its slopes.

“I’ve climbed Mont Ventoux quite a lot of times in the past, but also since I’ve known it will be in the Tour de France,” she said. “As I’ve said many times, I really like to know where I’m putting my wheels, so I went there quite a few times to do some recons.

“It’s a hard climb. It’s different to the Madeleine, and I think the wind will have more of an impact. It’s a climb that, after Chalet Reynard [14.5km into the 21km], you also need quite some power because it’s more like a flattish part.

“Madeleine was really steep and hard and didn’t really have parts where you could recover. This one is a bit different. I think maybe we will have more team tactics for Ventoux than we could see last year for Madeleine.”

One stage Ferrand-Prévot won’t be able to rely on her team is day four’s 21km individual time trial into Dijon. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider only returned to the road from her mountain bike career last year, and hasn’t raced alone against the clock since 2021, when she placed fifth at the French National Championships.

Did she feel like she was starting again from zero in preparing for the discipline? “I had to start from minus 10,” she laughed, but reassured she’s now gotten herself up to speed. “Since we knew there would be a TT in the Tour, we had a good plan; first of all to get back on the TT bike, then we did the positioning on the TT bike, and then we did more testing, wind tunnel testing, aerosuit testing, and also race simulation,” she said.

“I can say I’ve spent a lot of time on my TT bike. I really like it. For me, it’s kind of a challenge, and I really like this kind of challenge. I took it very seriously, and I think I did my homework quite well. I’m happy with how I feel on the TT bike.”

Though Ferrand-Prévot is winless this year – her main yellow jersey rival, Vollering, by contrast, has won 10 times – she said she feels relaxed thanks to the smooth preparation she has had.

Her recons of the stages have also led her to forecast that there will be “suspense until the end” in the GC. If she’s right, she’ll have a trump card to play on the final day: stage nine takes place barely a 20-minute drive from her home in Monaco, and includes four ascents of Nice’s Col d’Èze, her local training climb.

“It’s so special, because the last stage, I do this climb I would say almost every day,” she said. “I just love this feeling of being able to come back to this climb after the Tour and say, ‘I raced there and I gave it my best.’

“For all these reasons, I feel happy and at the moment relaxed. Let’s see in a few days, maybe I will be crying and unhappy, but at the moment I’m in a good way.”

The great engineer Alexander Graham Bell once said: “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” Ferrand-Prévot, of course, isn’t trying to invent the telephone, but she knows the rule still applies to bike racing, and her goal of claiming the yellow jersey again.

If she achieves it, she’ll be the first person in the race’s five-year history to win twice. It’s a feat to which she’d like to lay claim, and yet with three sleeps until the Grand Départ, she’s not getting hung up on it.

“Because I won last year, now I say, ‘Ok, it will not change my life to win it again. Even if I’m super motivated, and if I try really hard to do it again, there will be a tomorrow',” she said.

“This makes me feel really relaxed because I will just give my best and we will see. There’s nothing more I can do.”

The nine-day Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins this Saturday 1 August in Lausanne, Switzerland.