'I can only say Whoah! I did it, we did it together!' - Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Visma-Lease a Bike celebrate surprise Paris-Roubaix Femmes victory
French rider was ill and riding for Vos but produced the winning attack
The Visma-Lease a Bike riders celebrated with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot after her Paris-Roubaix Femmes victory, hugging together and watching as she lifted the famed cobbled trophy.
Prior to Paris-Roubaix, this year Visma-Lease a Bike had only taken one victory, a stage at the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina with Imogen Wolff. However, they had racked up a haul of podiums and top five places in the biggest Classics.
On paper, Visma-Lease a Bike were riding for Marianne Vos on Saturday, hoping she could add Paris-Roubaix Femmes to her incredible palmares. But instead, fortune smiled on Ferrand-Prévot.
"I can only say Whoah! I did it, we did it together! It's just amazing," Ferrand-Prévot told Cyclingnews in the mixed zone.
"I feel so happy for myself, but also for the whole team. We were waiting for that win for quite a long time. I think we have one of the biggest wins, so we can be really happy."
Vos rode around the velodrome looking for Ferrand-Prévot and they celebrated together.
"That's the gateway [key strategy] of cycling, you have to use the numbers and try to play with numbers. Pauline did a fantastic job," Vos said, with a mix of happiness for her teammate and perhaps a hint of personal disappointment.
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"I told her she needed to try something and she did it at the right moment. It was not easy to stay away but she did it."
After Ferrand-Prévot lifted the huge cobblestone trophy as she celebrated on the podium, she then proudly put it on the table in front of her during her winner's press conference. Given her partner Dylan van Baarle already won the men's Paris-Roubaix in 2022, now there are two such trophies at her home.
"Now I hope the guys can win another cobblestone on Sunday," she said in reference to Visma-Lease a Bike men's team and leader Wout van Aert, and before joking about the extra hand luggage charges she will face to fly home with the cobbled trophy.
Ferrand-Prévot has already won Olympic gold medals, mountain bike and road race world titles but a solo success in the Roubaix velodrome, with the French crowd cheering her on to victory was unquestionably also very special in its own way. Furthermore, she has been ill, wasn't supposed even to ride Paris-Roubaix and, when she did, she started out with the aim of riding to suppport Vos.
"I crashed at Strade Bianche and didn't totally recover. Then I got an infection in my ankle and took antibiotics twice. I only stopped taking them on Wednesday. I skipped training but then this morning I didn't have a fever, so I decided to ride to try to help Marianne and be part of the team game," Ferrand-Prévot revealed.
"The goal was to tire out the sprinters and bring Marianne as fresh as possible to sprint for the win. She asked me to attack on the cobbles but we were going fast, so I waited and then attacked on the tarmac. I had crashed on the Mons-en-Pevele sector but got back to the group and then attacked.
"They didn't get organised so I got a gap. I then went full gas to make them work. I wasn't even thinking about winning the race, I just wanted to make SDWorx work. But I won, so it's super cool."
Ferrand-Prévot was not even supposed to ride Paris-Roubaix but having begged her team to ride the Tour of Flanders, where she placed second behind Lotte Kopecky in the four-rider sprint, she went on from there. At Roubaix she then outshone the World Champion, who was forced to lead the chase for SD Worx-ProTime teammate Lorena Wiebes before being dropped and finishing two minutes down.
"My first year back on the road was to discover what I can do but I've really enjoyed it," Ferrand-Prévot explained about her return to road racing this season.
"The Tour de France Femmes is the main goal of the season. I really want to be 100% for the Tour and I want to try to win it within three years.
"Racing the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix was kind of training for the Tour. It was about building my confidence for the hardest race and learning how to be in good position, so I can fight for the win in the early stages of the Tour in Brittany.
"At Visma-Lease a Bike we're building something very strong together. I just love my teammates, I'm having the best time ever with them.
"It's not only about me now and so there's no real pressure anymore, I feel so good and so happy. We need to make the team stronger to win the Tour and I need to learn to handle the longer climbs. That's the next step now."
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Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
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