Ferrand-Prevot contracts COVID-19 week prior to UCI Gravel World title defence

Picture by Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com - 12/08/2023 - 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships - MTB Cross Country - Glentress Forest, Peebles, Scotland - Elite Women Cross-country Olympic - Podium - Gold; Pauline Ferrand Prevot, France,
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot celebrates winning the gold medal at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in MTB Cross-Country (Image credit: Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com)

Gravel World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has been forced to pull out of the inaugural UEC European Gravel Championships this weekend in Oud-Heverlee, Belgium due to a positive COVID-19 test.

This news comes just a week before she was supposed to defend her title at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Italy which she won in a two-up sprint last year against Switzerland’s Sina Frei at the event’s first-ever edition.

James Moultrie
News Writer

James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.