Tour de France winner: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot: "I will do everything I can to defend my title"

Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's comeback in road cycling has been an impressive success: Last year, the 33-year-old Frenchwoman celebrated straightaway victories at Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France Femmes. But that's not all - she has even bigger goals in her sights for the new year.

Last year, she left her rivals standing on the Col de la Madeleine with ease. Literally. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot took the lead on the uphill finish on stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes last year and won the world's most important cycling race in her first year after her comeback to road cycling. The 2014 road world champion had previously only tried her hand at mountain biking for a few years, but achieved everything in off-road cycling with Olympic gold in Paris. In the spring, she had already achieved a solo victory in the cobbled classic Paris-Roubaix. The young woman, who comes from Reims but lives on the Cote d'Azur, could have retired straight away. After all, winning the Tour was the big goal within the three-year term of her contract with the Dutch team Visma-Lease a bike. The mission was immediately accomplished. But the 33-year-old remains ambitious, as she revealed at the presentation of her team in Spain.

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The Ventoux awaits

First and foremost, she wants to repeat her Tour triumph. "I will do everything I can to defend my title," she said at her team's press event on 13 January. Unlike last year, there is an individual time trial on the course this year. "That will be a big challenge. I can still improve there," emphasised the Frenchwoman, who had not yet paid much attention to the battle against the clock in her first year after returning to road cycling. However, the Tour will probably be decided on the mountain again. "I'm waiting impatiently for the stage to Mont Ventoux," emphasised the defending champion at the press event. The Giant of Provence is on the programme of the Tour Femmes for the first time. Last year, Ferrand-Prévot dominated the competition in the mountains thanks to her greatly reduced body weight.

Double Vuelta plus Tour

While her male team-mate Jonas Vingegaard is to combine his start in the Tour next season with his first participation in the Giro d'Italia in May, Ferrand-Prévot wants to attempt the double of the Vuelta (early May) and the Tour of France (early August). The Tour winner will start with the first race on 7 March at the Strade Bianche. She finished third there last year. The Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège - two races that she has never won in her long career - will be at the centre of her Classics campaign. She also wants to contest the Flèche Wallonne.