Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is on a fair bit of form lately. The French cycling icon won mountain bike XCO (Olympic) and XCC (Short Track) world championships in one weekend. Just a few weeks later, she added another rainbow jersey to her expansive collection at the XC Marathon world championships in Denmark.
What do you do when you’ve already won three world titles in one season? If your PFP, you go for four.
The French rider announced she will line up for the first-ever UCI gravel cycling world championships when they take place in Veneto, Italy on October 8-9.
“Yes, last weeks treated me so good,” Ferrand-Prevot posted online. “No race planned for this week end, but in a week time I will be in the field to chase a fourth rainbow jersey of the season,” adding the hashtag “Dreambigorgohome” at the end.
With it being the first year of gravel worlds as a UCI sanctioned event, an eclectic group of top pros and high-level semi-pros are all making their way to Veneto. The mixed field, drawing road cyclists, including Peter Sagan and Alex Howes, and gravel specialists such as Sarah Sturm and Lauren De Crescenzo, should make for interesting racing. Ferrand-Prevot, with her past in cyclocross and road racing and obvious current form, should be among the favourites.
If Pauline Ferrand-Prevot does win in Italy, it will be her fourth world championship title this fall. It will also put her into double digits, as her 10th elite world championship title. Gravel would be the sixth different individual discipline the BMC rider would hold the world title in. She’s already earned titles in road, cyclocross and all three cross country mountain bike disciplines (XCO, XCC and XCM). She’s won another as part of the French mountain bike relay squad (XCR). Ferrand-Prevot’s first, and most famous run of world championship titles came in 2014-2015, when she became the first rider ever to simultaneously hold world titles in road, cyclocross and mountain biking.
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