{"id":204420,"date":"2025-12-22T12:06:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204420"},"modified":"2025-12-22T12:06:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:06:42","slug":"ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-are-headed-for-a-2026-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/12\/22\/ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-are-headed-for-a-2026-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Vollering Are Headed for a 2026 Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Coming off her smashing return to road racing, highlighted by a dominant \u2013 and game-changing \u2013 victory in the Tour de France avec Femmes with Zwift (TdFFaZ), Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot has announced, in so many words, that she intends to dominate next year\u2019s women\u2019s WorldTour.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

A declaration of confidence<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cI\u2026 really think that I can be more consistent during the full season. I would like to win more Classic races, and also I want to try to win Tour de France again and to be world champion next year,\u201d <\/span>Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot said<\/span> recently on <\/span>Visma\u2013Lease a Bike<\/a><\/span>‘s Inside the Beehive<\/i> podcast. This suggests that she wants to win every race she enters next year, since last year she finished third in the Strade Bianche Donne and second in the Tour of Flanders before winning Paris-Roubaix Femmes and had a disappointing world championship in Rwanda, finishing a well-beaten 16th behind surprise winner Magdeleine Valieres of Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Then she uttered a statement that should send alarm bells through the training camps of her rivals and make them work a little harder in training this winter: \u201cSo I think \u2013 I don’t know why \u2013 but I have a feeling it will be a super good year for me because I learned so much last year that now I know what I have to do, and I just can do what I learned from last year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What she did was lose about 4 kg, which amounted to nearly 10% of her body weight, for the TdFFaZ, a strategic, controlled \u201ccut\u201d with her team nutritionist to boost her watts-per-kilo capacity for the mountains. This elicited an intense debate about elite athlete weight management and setting a new training standard, and also provoked some rather abhorrent abuse about how she treated her body.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> later insisted that this was a temporary and controlled strategy to ensure peak performance. However, just after the race she said, \u201cBecause my preparation was so hard for the Tour de France, now I don\u2019t really see myself doing the same again. Maybe it\u2019s just because I\u2019m tired and want to have a small break. Over these past months, dedicating myself to this has been good, it’s paid off. But it\u2019s also been really hard. That\u2019s why I couldn\u2019t do it multiple times in the year. It\u2019s so much sacrifice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pauline<\/a>
The victorious Ferrand-Prevot at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

How she has \u2018changed the game\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Apparently<\/span>,<\/span> she has changed her mind and seems more than willing to repeat the strategy next year. What this means for women\u2019s road racing should be game-changing. As the World and European time trial champion<\/span>,<\/span> Marlen Reusser<\/span>,<\/span> told the <\/span>Tages-Anzeiger<\/i><\/a><\/span> at the time, \u201cFerrand-Pr\u00e9vot has set a new standard. When riders are so successful with this, it puts pressure on all of us.\u201d And she added: \u201cWe were secretly hoping she wouldn\u2019t be successful with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Reusser also said that she would not follow her path. \u201cI\u2019m not built to be the lightest rider in the peloton,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want to force my body to become something that it is not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Reusser had a marvellous 2025, winning the Tour de Suisse Women and coming second in the Vuelta Espa\u00f1a Femenina and Giro d\u2019Italia Women. But she crashed out on the first stage of the TdFFaZ and was not able to measure herself against Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot. Perhaps she won\u2019t have to next year as well, since the Frenchwoman is not targeting the Vuelta or the Giro and Reusser will presumably concentrate on defending her ITT title in Montreal rather than go for the road win.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But what about the riders <\/span>who<\/span> are targeting the Tour and the World Championships next year, especially Demi Vollering? How has the 2025 Tour runner-up and wanna-be world champion reacted to the gauntlet Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot has thrown into next season with her bold ambition and optimism?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Vollering is up for the challenge<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Vollering is probably the rider most affected by Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s \u201cradical\u201d training regimen since winning the TdFFaZ has been her primary objective since it was first run in 2022. She finished second in that race (to the great Annemiek van Vleuten), won it in 2023, finished second (to Kasia Niewiadoma, by 4 seconds) the following year and second again this year, 3:42 behind Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot. That 3:42 represents quite a gulf in terms of performance. Will Vollering follow her rival\u2019s weight-loss path to level the playing field?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Speaking to<\/span> L’\u00c9quipe<\/i><\/a><\/span> in October, she said, \u201cThe Tour and the World Championships are always on my mind; I wish I had succeeded. But that\u2019s sport \u2013 it\u2019s what makes things more beautiful. If I manage to do it in the future, it will make those moments even more special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Asked if those were her main objectives for 2026, Vollering said, \u201cOf course. That is great motivation. To be in great form for the Tour is one of the most exciting things to look forward to.\u201d And, of course, she was asked about Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s return to road cycling. Her answer was, \u201cEvery strong runner pushes me to be better, to improve. So it’s definitely a good thing.\u201d Asked then what she needed to improve, Vollering said, \u201cActually, quite a lot of things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

I wonder if that includes her diet. If 2026 turns into a duel between Vollering and Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, it should be a fascinating year in women\u2019s cycling.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It sounds as if Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s radical approach to winning has changed the women\u2019s World Tour playing field and that there could be a thrilling rivalry next year between arguably the two best female cyclists in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming off her smashing return to road racing, highlighted by a dominant \u2013 and game-changing \u2013 victory in the Tour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":204421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[3771,4037,2264],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-204420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-demi-vollering","tag-pauline-ferrand-prevot","tag-womens-cycling","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nFerrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Vollering Are Headed for a 2026 Showdown - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coming off her smashing return to road racing, highlighted by a dominant \u2013 and game-changing \u2013 victory in the Tour de France avec Femmes with Zwift\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/12\/22\/ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-are-headed-for-a-2026-showdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Vollering Are Headed for a 2026 Showdown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coming off her smashing return to road racing, highlighted by a dominant \u2013 and game-changing \u2013 victory in the Tour de France avec Femmes with Zwift\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/12\/22\/ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-are-headed-for-a-2026-showdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-22T12:06:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2025\/12\/Ferrand-Prevot-Vollering-profimedia-1041040405-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/12\/22\/ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-are-headed-for-a-2026-showdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/12\/22\/ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-are-headed-for-a-2026-showdown\/\",\"name\":\"Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Vollering Are Headed for a 2026 Showdown - 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