Team Visma | Lease a BikeWomen has announced it will welcome the recently-crowned Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to its squad in 2025.
The 32-year-old talented French woman and former world champion returns to road cycling after a successful period in mountain biking. She has signed a three-season contract.
Ferrand-Prévot had a successful start to her road career. At 22, she became the world champion in 2014 and in the following years she took several places of honour in the classics. In 2019, she decided to focus on mountain biking. After five world titles and an Olympic gold medal, she is returning to the WorldTour.
“Last winter, I was thinking about my future after the Olympics. I had been chasing an Olympic medal in mountain biking for 12 years. I have now achieved that goal. I think it’s time for a new challenge in cycling. Choosing Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women was an easy decision. The way the team works and its professional approach really appeal to me”, the ambitious Ferrand-Prévot said.
“Women’s cycling has come a long way since I left the sport”, she added. “I can’t wait to get back into the peloton. With the support of the team, I am sure I can do great things again, so I am very motivated. I want to win The Tour de France Femmes!”
Team manager Rutger Tijssen is ecstatic with Ferrand-Prévot’s arrival. “Pauline is an exceptionally talented athlete who decided to devote herself entirely to mountain biking a few years ago. With her Olympic gold medal, she has now completed mountain biking. I admire that she has taken the bold decision to return to the road with a clear objective: to win the Tour de France Femmes.”
“It will be a challenging project, but we as a team believe she can do it”, Tijssen continued. “We will support her in achieving her goal. Although the transition to road racing will take some time. Mountain biking is an explosive one-and-a-half-hour sport. A road race is more about endurance over a longer period. We will give her time to become a road cyclist again. She will be our team leader in the grand tours, but she will also be able to compete in the Walloon classics.”
