Ferrand-Prevot wins women's Paris-Roubaix race
Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot has become the first Frenchwoman to win the Paris-Roubaix road race.The Visma-Lease a Bike rider broke clear with about 15km of the 148.5km route remaining, and crossed the line in a time of three hours 40 minutes seven seconds.Ferrand-Prevot arrived in the Roubaix velodrome on her own to cheers from a partisan home crowd, finishing 58 seconds ahead of Italy's Letizia Borghesi, with Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands just behind."It was a great day for us. I didn't expect this to be honest," said Ferrand-Prevot, 33, who won mountain bike cross-country gold at Paris 2024.
"I was confident that the team could do something really good. But you also needed to have some luck and to put everything together."The cross-discipline rider was making her debut in the race, having rejoined the road circuit in 2025 after a decade's absence.Defending champion Lotte Kopecky of Belgium finished 12th, a place ahead of Great Britain's Pfeiffer Georgi, while compatriot Zoe Backstedt was 15th.Ferrand-Prevot's victory came despite a fall 53km from the end of the race, which features 17 cobbled sectors totalling 29.2km. She had also suffered from illness in the build-up."I've been sick for the last two days. I didn't even know if I was going to start," she said. "In the end, I did the right thing by coming."I started thinking I was going to do my best to help [team-mate] Marianne Vos win. I can't believe it."Ferrand-Prevot said she had started to "really enjoy" her comeback on the road, and that winning the Tour de France Femmes, which takes place from 26 July to 3 August, was her "main goal"."I really want to be 100% for Tour de France. And want to try to win Tour de France within three years," she said."We are building something very strong together as a team."The men's Paris-Roubaix race takes place on Sunday.
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