Home > MTB

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot rolls into Olympic year on Absolute-Absalon – BMC

New year, new team for the defending elite women's world champion

Pauline Ferrand Prevot - Absolut Absalon BMC Photo by: Pauline Ferrand-Prevot Instagram

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot has finally revealed where she will be racing for the 2021 season, which is now also the Olympic year. The reigning elite women’s XCO champion is now riding for Absolute-Absalon – BMC cross country team.

The team was founded by Ferrand-Prevot’s partner and French mountain bike icon Julien Absalon on his retirement. PVP will join returning team members Filippo Colombo, Titouan Carod and Mathis Azzuro. Carod earned a bronze medal in the elite men’s XCO at 2020 world championships, where Colombo was seventh. Mathis Azzaro is the under-23 French champion.

2020 XCO world championships Leogang Austria Pauline Ferrand Prevot
Pauline Ferrand Prevot makes it back-to-back rainbows. Winning elite women’s titles at UCI XCO World Championships in Leogang, Austria on October 10th, 2020. Photo: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot isn’t just the current world champion, making her one of the favorites for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. Her 2020 win defended the title she won a year earlier at Mont-Sainte-Anne. 2019 also saw the powerhouse French woman win XC Marathon world championships.

RELATED: 2021 team trade season: who has moved where and what’s still unknown

Ferrand-Prevot’s success comes amid her ongoing struggles with knee pain. While it ended in celebrations, again, she started the 2020 season recovering from her second Illiac Artery surgery.

Ferrand-Prevot is most famous for her triple world championship. She became the first elite rider, male or female, to hold elite titles in road, cyclocross and XC mountain bike concurrently in 2015.