Macron and pizza: "Queen" redeems cycling nation France

After the end of the seemingly endless French slump in the Tour de France, Emmanuel Macron congratulated the winners, and not just on social media. The President of the Grande Nation picked up the phone himself and called Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The "Queen", as the newspaper "L'Equipe" called her, picked up the phone and congratulated herself in the maillot jaune. "I gave it my all until the end. Thank you, thank you very much for your call," she said.

France has been waiting for a Tour winner since Bernard Hinault's triumph in 1985. 40 years, 480 months, 2078 weeks, 14,623 days have passed since then. There is still no male champion on the Champs-Élysées in Paris - but Tour winner Ferrand-Prévot, who won the Olympic mountain bike title last year and has now earned the status of a national sporting hero.

Three-year plan completed in one summer

"On the summit! Pauline Ferrand-Prévot makes Tour history. Bravo, champion," wrote Macron on X. At the age of 33, the versatile Frenchwoman has finally arrived in the cycling Olympics. Eleven years after her world championship title on the road, she won the prestigious Tour de France Femmes with nine stages on the program at her first attempt.

"I came back to the road and said I wanted to win the Tour within three years. Now I'm here and I've done it on my first attempt," said Ferrand-Prévot. As a reward, she wanted to treat herself to a pizza after the exertions of the past week.

In the fourth edition of the women's Tour de France in this form, she distanced the previous winners Demi Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma by several minutes - and impressed the competition with two dominant stage wins in the Alps. "It's one of the best performances ever in women's cycling," said Marlen's Reusser's team colleague Liane Lippert on ARD-Sportschau.

Mother rides the route in a camper van

Ferrand-Prévot looked back on a meticulous preparation. "Everyone prepares for the Tour, that's true, but I think I set the bar very high. I made a lot of sacrifices," she said. The Frenchwoman has made her mark on the mountain bike scene over the past decade and was looking for a new challenge at an advanced age as an athlete - she mastered this with her overall Tour victory in Châtel after just one year.

There has been real euphoria in the Frenchwoman's family over the past few days. Her mother Sylviane followed the Tour entourage in a camper van. Even as a child, the winner followed the biggest stage race in the world with great enthusiasm - back then she wished she was a boy so that she could take part.

Giro responds to Tour enthusiasm

In 2025, it will also be possible to be a woman - and the Tour de France Femmes, which has had numerous unsuccessful previous attempts, is growing. According to the organizers, the race will be broadcast in 190 countries. The women's Tour follows on from the men's Tour and most recently began on the same weekend as the end of the men's Tour.

The most important stage race to date, the women's Giro, is already reacting to the growing interest in the Tour and has moved its date. Because more and more top female riders are planning their season around the Tour, the Giro 2026 will take place at the end of May. This season, there were less than two weeks between the two grand tours.