Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women) said her fixation on winning the Tour de France Femmes a second time took away her enjoyment of everyday life in 2026. She won no races that season and left the Tour before its final stage.
In an Instagram post on October 31, which marked the end of her off-season and also shared images of her wedding to Dylan van Baarle, the French rider looked back on the months before the race.
"I was so over focus on winning Tour again that I lost the joy of the everyday life. It was all about being, and doing more to be the best," she wrote.
She said she had been through hard periods earlier in her career. "I never really experienced the fact to do everything so good and to ended up with nothing. And I think it’s one of the reason of my “non-understanding” state of the last few months."
In 2025, her first full road season since her Olympic mountain bike title, Ferrand-Prévot won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour, and the double brought her the women's Vélo d'Or. Ahead of 2026 she had named Flanders and Liège as targets before the Tour defence. In the spring she finished second at the Tour of Flanders, third at Roubaix and seventh at Flèche-Wallonne. At the Tour she lost 2:35 on stage five, then fell ill and did not start stage eight on August 8. She did not race again, ending the year with 19 race days.
Van Baarle's crash
On October 7 her husband, Dylan van Baarle (Soudal Quick-Step), collided with a car while training in Tiel, in the Netherlands. His team said a CT scan showed no damage to his skull or spine. It also said he had fractured his wrist, which needed surgery and ended his season.
"I realized how life is much more that winning bike races," Ferrand-Prévot wrote. "And for once, I was “happy” to be by his side and do my best to support him as good as possible. Usually he is the one who always take care of me."
The couple married in the Netherlands in the week before her post. Van Baarle's mother conducted the ceremony, and Ferrand-Prévot said his cast had come off three days earlier.
"I remembered being happy when winning the Olympics, Tour or Roubaix, but this feeling of getting married to Dylan with the presence of the most important people in my life was another level of joy, happiness and fulfillment," she wrote. "Experiencing this feeling of being so happy while not sacrificing everything or being extreme was something I never experienced before. On that last sentence I will take note for the future."
Now back in training, she said she was out of shape and that regaining her level would take time. "But the most important for now is to find back the joy to be on the bike."
