Pauline Ferrand‑Prévot (Visma–Lease a Bike) has set the tone for 2026 by declaring her intent to win the Tour of Flanders and Liège‑Bastogne‑Liège. “In 2026, I want to win Flanders and Liège,” she said at Rouleur Live in London, underlining a decisive pivot to the Spring Classics that instantly frames a season‑long duel with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx‑Protime), the three‑time Ronde van Vlaanderen winner.
Cyclingnews first trailed her Classics ambition earlier this autumn, with Ferrand‑Prévot saying she wanted “to try to win Flanders and Liège” before defending her Tour de France Femmes title.
The French multi‑discipline world champion returns to the road in 2026 on the back of a landmark 2025 campaign. In April she finished second at the Tour of Flanders, losing to Kopecky in a reduced sprint after an attritional day on the Hellingen. A week later she won Paris‑Roubaix Femmes, a breakthrough cobbled Monument that she later revealed came despite an ankle infection that left her “really sick” before the start. Four months on, Ferrand‑Prévot sealed the overall title at the Tour de France Femmes on her road comeback, a triumph covered extensively by Libération.
Her stated 2026 focus elevates both the Monuments narrative and a rivalry that already has a clear scoreboard. Kopecky is the rider to beat at De Ronde after victories in 2022, 2023 and 2025, while Liège remains a natural target for Ferrand‑Prévot given her punch on longer Ardennes climbs. The Belgian was fifth at Liège in 2025, with Ferrand‑Prévot twelfth, but the Frenchwoman’s consistency across the spring and her winning kick at Roubaix make the Flanders‑Liège double a credible goal rather than a soundbite.
Ferrand‑Prévot has also been candid about how she plans to manage the burden of expectation and form. “I don’t want to win everything, I don’t want that pressure,” she told Ouest-France, explaining that she will limit her targets and build two peaks in 2026, one for the Classics and one for a Tour de France Femmes defence. Elsewhere in the Ouest-France interview she offered a typically blunt self‑assessment: “I can’t say I really like racing but I like winning. So it’s really complicated for me.” That clarity helps explain the schedule and periodisation she and Visma intend to pursue.
For Flanders, the tactical equation is straightforward. Ferrand‑Prévot must find a way to unseat Kopecky on terrain where the SD Worx‑Protime leader’s blend of cobble handling, repeatability on short climbs and sprint speed has rendered her nearly unbeatable.
The 2025 edition offered a blueprint, with Ferrand‑Prévot matching the accelerations on the Koppenberg‑Taaienberg sequence and surviving the attrition to contest the finale. Closing that final 1 percent, whether through sharper positioning into the final climbs or forcing a selection earlier to blunt Kopecky’s sprint, will be the crux.
Liège is a different puzzle. The Ardennes profile rewards measured climbing and timing on ascents such as La Redoute and Roche‑aux‑Faucons. Ferrand‑Prévot’s 2025 top‑12 on limited road racing volume suggests headroom if she arrives in April with a Classics‑specific build rather than juggling a broader campaign.
Two peaks, one season
Targeting both the spring Monuments and a July general classification is something of a high‑wire act. Ferrand‑Prévot has framed the challenge as deliberate, not romantic. The trade‑offs of altitude work, race rhythm and recovery windows will be tight, and she has acknowledged the sacrifice such periodisation requires. Yet 2025 proved her ceiling when she narrows the objective. That Roubaix win, followed by a controlled Tour de France Femmes, was the strongest evidence yet that her multi‑discipline engine can be tuned to road racing’s most unforgiving days.
The calendar gives this rivalry a natural arc. Flanders is expected in early April, Liège three weeks later, then a reset toward July. Between those bookends sits the tactical and psychological edge. Kopecky retains the favourite’s status at De Ronde by weight of history. Ferrand‑Prévot brings momentum and an explicit target list. As she said at Rouleur Live, the goal is to win Flanders and Liège before turning to yellow again.
If Ferrand‑Prévot adds either Monument to her 2025 Paris‑Roubaix, the Classics landscape tilts. If Kopecky defends her cobbled crown and out‑punches the Frenchwoman in the Ardennes, the benchmark remains. Either way, the opening weeks of 2026 have their headline act.
