Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will attempt to win her fourth world title of this season after confirming that she will line up to compete at the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships held on October 8-9 in Veneto, Italy.
"Yes, the last weeks have treated me so good. No race planned for this week end, but in a week time I will be in the field to chase a 4th rainbow jersey of the season. #gravellife #dreambigorgohome," Ferrand-Prévot confirmed.
Ferrand-Prévot currently holds the world titles in elite women's XCC short track, XCO cross-country, won in late August in Les Gets, France, and the XCM marathon won in Haderslev, Denmark in mid-September. She is the first to win all three titles in the same season.
Ferrand-Prévot is not new to holding a collection of world titles simultaneously. She has spent a significant portion of her career wearing a rainbow jersey in road racing, mountain biking and cyclo-cross.
She made history in the 2014-2015 season, at the age of 23, when she became the first cyclist to simultaneously hold world titles in all three disciplines winning the elite women's road race world title in 2014 Ponferrada, the XCO cross-country world title in 2015 Vallnord, and the cyclo-cross world title in 2015 Tabor.
She has won a total of nine individual elite world titles during her sparkling career, that also include four XCO cross-country titles (2015, 2019, 2020 and 2022), two XCM marathon titles in (2019 and 2022), and one XCC short track title (2022).
In addition, she was part of the France national team that won world titles in the team relays in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
She was diagnosed with double iliac artery endofibrosis in November of 2018 and undersent two separate surgeries in 2019 and 2020 from which she has fully recovered.
Ferrand-Prévot raced on the road for Rabobank from 2012 through 2016 before joining Canyon-SRAM from 2017 through the end of 2020. She made the decision to stop racing road and cyclo-cross, and to compete only in mountain biking in 2021 when she joined BMC with an eye on the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The UCI introduced the new 12-round Gravel World Series and the Gravel World Championships this season for elite men and elite women categories, along with five-year age group categories from 19-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54 and 55-59 and 60+.
The elite women will compete on October 8 in a 140km route from Vicenza to Cittadella. The race has 32% unpaved roads, 24% hard gravel, 1% cobbles, 10% hard surface and 31% asphalt, and a total of 700 metres of elevation.
At each round of the UCI Gravel World Series, the fastest 25% of men and women from each age group qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships, which will crown the world champions for each age group.
Each National Federation can enter 20 quotas in total for all categories across both genders, and the National Federation of the country of the UCI Gravel World Championships can enter 40 quotas.
In addition, the regulations for the UCI Gravel World Championships states that wild cards can be given at the discretion of the UCI only for the riders in the elite men and elite women categories – members of UCI registered teams or benefiting from a wild card from their National Federation.
