Subscribe to access the summary in 20 seconds.
Before climbing at the top of the mountain, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot plunged deep into herself, in an exploration of her own brain. Weird chemistry of the emotions that the French cycling champion had started to master. She thus makes the speleology of her neurons, with the help of a psychiatrist, a psychotherapist and a multi-funional confidant, as much a press secretary as a “relational yoga” or tantric yoga teacher. Folded, recluse, in the balance of her affects and in her home perched in Andorra, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot resolved to identify the contacts around her, until only ten people. Her “circle”, she traces. A champion cannot have so many friends.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot wanted to reach a human truth but, as she said, she went “in robot mode”. It was the price to pay to win the gold medal of cross-country in mountain biking during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the Tour de France on Sunday, after a spectacular edition. On Saturday, the 33-year-old Frenchwoman, member of the Dutch team Visma-Lease A Bike-the same as Jonas Vingegaard in men-won the yellow jersey in the Madeleine pass. She hit again the next day on the last stage, overhanging Chatel, on the Swiss border. “You have to admit defeated when it is stronger,” conceded the Geneva Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez), who had to be satisfied with the best climbing polka dot jersey. His teammate Demi Vollering finished second in the general classification, with 3 minutes and 42 seconds late.