This is a debate that we could not imagine on the occasion of this 2025 women’s Tour de France, which will end Sunday in Châtel (Haute-Savoie). The extreme thinness of several runners of the Tour arouses controversy within the peloton, where doctors and nutritionists are concerned about the long -term consequences on the health of athletes who are above all women. In this sense, the worrying remarks made Wednesday in Clermont-Ferrand by the French Cédrine Kerbaol, for Humanity And at the microphone of France Télévisions, resounded as an alert.
“Before being athletes, we are also women and our health counts for now, but it counts for the future too. And what is happening at the moment is not terrible, “said the first French stage winner last year, since the launch of the new version of the women’s Tour de France driven four years ago. “The more we lower the weight, the more we increase the weight ratio -power. But it is not without consequences, the damage caused by the energy deficit is sometimes very heavy, ”also a team manager of a team.
“Much more impact than if it came from a doctor”
“There are many girls who have won large races with a very light weight and, indirectly, the young girls who try to perform will take them for example,” warns Cédrine Kerbaol, who followed a nutritionist training before being a professional cyclist. The message of the best young (white jersey) of Tour 2023 is “great”, estimates the doctor of the Cofidis Mathieu Muller team.
“Whether it’s a runner who launches the alert, it has much more impact than if it came from a doctor,” he insists. A too low fat mass leads to what is called the sports triad, that is to say the energy supply deficit which leads to the absence of rules and then to osteoporosis. A problem that men do not have.
“We should not be surprised if, one day, a runner fractures the cervical and finds himself paraplegic,” is alarmed another medical source. “The consequences are bone, digestive, skin and psychiatric problems, such as depression,” continues Mathieu Muller.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot lost 4 kg with a view to the tour
For several doctors interviewed, runners can be sharpened for a few weeks, but beyond a certain duration, it becomes “very problematic” from a medical point of view. It should therefore be, according to them, that the runners set two or three objectives per season, while absolutely taking up the rest of the year, “if we put in the long term”. Between her victory during Paris-Roubaix and the departure of the Tour, the Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (currently 2nd overall) said that she had lost four pounds.
“But more, it is absolutely not possible,” assured the 2024 Olympic mountain bike champion on the eve of the departure. The doctor of another team pleads to impose a minimum fat mass, while challenging the UCI to set up a protocol. Cédrine Kerbaol notes that runners of the best teams are supervised by nutritionists or doctors, which is not the case with many cyclists who are starting.
Our file on the Tour de France female
In “a prevention perspective”, the Breton has just created an Instagram account entitled Feed_Powr (Fueling for Endurance, Energy, and Durability) in order to warn young people. “With the Tour, we are in a moment of great visibility,” she recalls. Future cyclists see very skinny current stars thinking that this is normal. But it is not normal to have delusional bones at 20 years old. The alert was clearly given by Cédrine Kerbaol.
