"They were right, but I didn't want to listen to them": Loana Lecomte now explains what happened to her in 2025 and how Pauline Ferrand-Prevot helped her

The French biker Loana Lecomte has publicly acknowledged in a recent interview that she went through a total burnout episode during the 2025 season, a process that, as she explains, had been developing for several years. She made this revelation in an interview with Dauphiné Libéré, where she also reveals the key role that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot played in helping her identify and accept what was happening to her mentally.

Loana Lecomte now explains the total burnout episode she suffered in 2025

The term burnout can have several meanings, but it can also be summarized as a situation in which riding a bike brings the affected person more sorrows than joys, whether physical or emotional.

About six months ago, Lecomte had already given a first hint about her situation by posting a message on Instagram announcing that she needed to stop, think about herself, and “mentally recharge.” Now, the French XCO champion has taken a step further and named that complicated period.

Lecomte places the key moment at the XCO World Championship held in September in Valais (Switzerland), where she withdrew from the race in the first lap after a bad fall. "I needed to crash against the wall at the World Championship", she explains in the interview. "Then I ended up accepting that I was unwell, that the people around me had been right for a long time, but I didn't want to listen to them. It was an accumulation of four or five years, during which I gradually got into that hellish spiral."

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In that process of awareness, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was fundamental. Lecomte acknowledges that it was she who got her to accept the situation and learn to set boundaries: "It was she who convinced me to accept knowing how to say no, to understand that it is important to think about oneself because no one will do it for you. If I hadn't done it, I might have accepted it less, and my little burnout would have lasted even longer."

According to Lecomte herself, no one else in her environment really knew what she was going through, except for Ferrand-Prévot, precisely because she had already gone through a similar experience in the past. "It had to be her who told me."

From this entire process, which she claims has brought her a lot on a personal level, the French biker draws a direct reflection on the constant demands at a high level: "We need to stop wanting to be tuned all year round, to want to do every training to the minute."

A powerful message that once again highlights the importance of mental health in professional cycling, even in disciplines as demanding as MTB XCO, where the pressure to perform at the highest level is continuous.