Ferrand-Prevot shows way forward for women in Tour de France Femmes victory

Forty long years have passed since a French rider won the Tour de France. Forty years of hand-wringing in L'Equipe and feverish tension every July.

- FLO CLIFFORD

The great Bernard Hinault has endured a long wait for a successor.

As Pauline Ferrand-Prevot crossed the line in Chatel, soaking in the adulation of the crowd, 40 years of hurt came to an end. She held out her arms, slipped off her bike and lay flat on her back in the finish area, the weight of her achievement sinking in.

The 33-year-old's palmares is among the most impressive in history, spanning nearly every discipline: a win on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix earlier this year, 12 world titles, Olympic mountain bike gold, to name just a few standouts. But there was a sense that this one meant more than any other victory.

What seemed like a very bold statement at the time of her comeback to road racing after seven years away, that she wanted to win the Tour de France, now seems simply prophetic, a sign of the steely-eyed determination that delivered her to the title in her first season back.

“I’ve realised a little girl’s dream, it’s a perfect day,” Ferrand-Prévot said after taking yellow on stage eight. “I have to thank the public and my family who were here at the roadside.”

Her historic individual triumph has the potential to be much more than purely another glorious win for one of cycling's serial winners. It could also change the course of women’s cycling. A women’s version of the Tour de France has been run intermittently since 1955. A race known as the Tour de France Féminin was won three times by French great Jeannie Longo in the 1980s, while compatriot Catherine Marsal won its successor, the Tour de la C.E.E. Féminin, in 1990.

But a lack of stable, committed sponsorship and funding, indifferent media coverage, and either ambivalence or outright opposition from the Tour organisers meant the women’s Tour was always teetering on the verge of collapse.