Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is ready for the goal she left MTB for

It was not yet the plan for a year that was supposed to be one of assimilation but, given how well she has been performing in her return to road cycling, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will lead the Visma-Lease a Bike women's team in the Tour de France that will start at the end of the men's edition that is currently in its final week of racing.

Cycling legends Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at the helm of Visma-Lease a Bike for the Tour

Last year, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot announced her return to the road after years of being a reference in mountain biking, where she has won everything there is to win. The 33-year-old Frenchwoman faced this return to her origins with the goal of winning the Tour de France, her big dream, in a few years, with this first season being an adaptation to a road cycling that had changed completely since she left it, becoming a fully professionalized sport of much higher average level.

However, a brilliant start to the season, with a third-place finish in the Strade Bianche, a second place in the Tour of Flanders, and the great achievement of winning the Paris-Roubaix has accelerated the timelines and she arrives at the Tour de France as the leader of the Visma-Lease a Bike women's team with the goal, in the words of her director Rutger Tijssen, of achieving the best possible position in the general classification.

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However, things did not go well for Pauline in the Women's Vuelta a España, where she was forced to abandon due to an injury. Now, two months later, "Pauline is completely physically and mentally prepared. In the last two months, she has been able to prepare for the Tour calmly. We made the conscious decision not to participate in races and focus on training. On August 3, we will know if it was the right decision," commented her director.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will have a luxury team to support her, starting with the queen Marianne Vos who will bring all her class and experience while trying to shine in the stage finishes where, for sure, she will snatch a victory. The Frenchwoman will also have the young Marion Bunel as her lieutenant in the mountains, who has been certifying a remarkable season and has been training alongside Pauline for these months to achieve full understanding.

"When the mountains come, my job will be to support Pauline to the maximum. We have trained a lot together in recent weeks, so we know each other better and better. That joint preparation has brought us even closer as a team," said the Frenchwoman as well.

Completing the Visma-Lease lineup for the women's Tour de France will be Femke de Vries, Lieke Nooijen, Eva van Agt, and Imogen Wolff.