In the aftermath of the triumph of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Jeannie Longo confided this Monday at RMC Sport in order to take stock of the Tour de France women 2025. The opportunity for the former French champion, triple winner of the Grande loop in the 1980s, to approach the future of his successor, the state of health of the peloton and the duration of the event.
The coronation of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on the Tour de France female
“It was the first time that she did it, it was a big challenge for her. She knew her opponents, because she ran the start of the season with the same girls, but not on a race in stages. She had not done a race in stages as long. In my time, we would run three weeks, at least it was fifteen days. There it was nine days. For her, it was a little the unknown to the last day. Anyway, it’s a very big emotion. “
Ferrand-Prévot back for the 2026 edition?
“It will depend on her motivation. We see her, she arrives on the last day, she is happy. But we do not know everything that must be done before to get there. It is a big training. These are daily sacrifices. It is to think of it day and night, having a discipline, both sporty and hygiene of life. In my time, any athlete who was more than 32, it was a bit of a fateful age. 34 years soon (next February 10), it is said that her future is ahead.
The possible extension of the female tour
“We, we had several races in the year of a fortnight. In the United States in particular, there were two and two in France too. Fifteen days, ten days, it was current with us. Afterwards we must recognize that the stages were shorter. We did not have daily stages of 150 km. It happened, but they were sporadic. When it’s shorter, it was always more muscular. Distances.
The public has always been in favor of female cycling. There has always been an audience present on the side of the roads. On the other hand, now that it is well publicized, that there is a lot of advertising that has been made around the tour of women, I think there are a lot of candidates that will be looming so there will not be much problem to lengthen the number of steps. Afterwards, it will not be the same thing, you have to defend a jersey, it’s not the same tactic. The more steps there are, the more likely there is a chance to have a long way. They have had a lot of favorable winds, this year, not many possibilities to make borders, that is to say riding a fan to break the platoons. There are lots of things that can happen if we extend the number of steps. “
Improve the tactical aspect
“I believe that the pelot must have a big tactical effort. Sports directors may not always reason in the first degree and to put value girls of value who are no longer there on arrival to help leaders when they really need it. You have to get in difficulty the yellow jersey or the future yellow jersey. Pauline was relatively in comfort for six days.”
The remuneration of runners
“Women make a beautiful show, but men still make more kilometers. Propertically the number of hours on the bicycle, why not a difference, because they get tired more, longer. That they have good wages, it’s normal. Asking equality, I don’t quite agree.”
Peloton health
“You have to be very vigilant. As in some sports where you have to be very thin, like ski jump. You have to be very very vigilant to switch to anorexia. Personally, I lowered my shape to have the yellow jersey. I had the green jersey twice before having the yellow jersey three times. I was a little too muscular so I told myself that I am thinner. What we eat, you have to be careful.
