Inaugural Gravel World Champion Misses Her Title Defense Due to COVID

While we might be out of the pandemic, coronavirus is still not a thing of the past yet. We are still seeing people fall sick with COVID-19 and, in some instances, have fatal encounters with the virus. While mere mortals like us think that athletes would have a better time keeping COVID away. But, at the end of the day, we’re all human.

Athletes have had an equally hard time, if not harder while dealing with coronavirus. With great status comes a busy schedule, wherein athletes may not be able to care for themselves well enough. In such situations, they are more susceptible than usual to catching the virus. Such was the case with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

Pauline misses title defense due to COVID-19

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships in 2022 championship. It was one of four honors she took home for herself besides short track, cross-country Olympic, and marathon mountain biking. While she was looking forward to defending the title she won in Veneto, Italy, last year, she will be unable to recover on time for the race. She announced her decision on Instagram, expressing her disappointment at having missed out.

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“It’s the doctor’s orders to take more recovery time to make sure I come back to full health as soon as possible. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend, that course is going to produce some great racing,” said the champ on Instagram. The 31-year-old has won world titles in road, cyclo-cross, and mountain biking during her career, with gravel being the latest string to her bow.

Ferrand-Prévot had opted to race gravel instead of mountain bike in the final weeks of the season as both events were clashing. However, now she will likely watch those events while recovering at home.

Many Frustrations for the Champ

The cycling veteran has often taken to Instagram to express herself and her grievances to her supporters. “Since Les Gets nothing is going really in the right direction,” she wrote in an Instagram post earlier this week.

“I managed to push myself every time to give my best and got a good result, but last week during [the Paris Olympics mountain bike] Test Event I started to feel tired again and no energy. Two days ago I started to feel sick, and now it seems the Covid hit me again,” she added.

While we understand that Pauline needs time to recover, it does not make her absence any less disappointing. All we can do is wish her the best of luck and hope she recovers completely. We are sure she will come back a much stronger, more focused, and determined athlete with a point to prove. We can’t wait to see what’s next when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot returns.

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