Pauline Ferrand Prevot Officially Signs with Ineos Grenadiers

 aaron gwin said the exact same thing a while back

 I understand the confusion and I don't like how this detracts from Keller's incredible season. There's certainly an element of weird gamesmanship to it, especially considering that PFP's approach to this season was clearly to peak for the "important" races, etc. However, she's definitely not the only one that takes this approach.

That being said, PFP certainly made a strong case this year for the inconsistencies in the overalls, considering that she won the world championship in four different disciplines and has not not won an event since mid-August.

 Another weird hangover of cycling copying Skiing for it's event and scoring structure. It's not that big of a deal, just like Skiing anyone who's interest is piqued will quickly learn the the difference.

 @scantregard: he'd probably feel differently if he had won one.

Seriously though, it's a fair perspective, and there should be a well known visual indicator of who won last years overall.

 @UtahBrent: There's one, they start the season with the UCI WC leader jersey.

The same goes in track and field, nobody ever remembers who won the most diamond league events or overall title but most do know who is the world champ.

People should see the MTB WC as a series or league and nothing else, they exist solely to maintain people's attention on the sport before the World Championship.

 Amen, g123. I hear PFP saying she's going to concentrate on winning gold at the Paris Olympics, what I'm hearing is something like "I'm going to race 3 WC races in between".
I think she'd get much more respect if she had done the whole (or most) WC races AND won the XCO Worlds. Instead, she limited her racing to train more and peak late in the season. Which - before people start pointing it out - obviously worked and perhaps even better than she had hoped for, given all the rainbow jerseys.. But it doesn't take away the perception to many, that she did not put herself through the same demands of the long racing season, before taking part in the World Champs single races.
I have more respect for the women on the overall WC podium. But that's just me.

 Was Keller the most successful? I wouldn't argue that. She didn't win much. She was consistent and deserves the overall. But victories matter more for many of us than points. You can lose the World Cup while having won the most events.

PFP had a FAR more successful season than any other female racer.

Nino skipped the last World Cup before winning the Olympics in Rio. Well worth it. Does anyone care he skipped a World Cup in 2016--no. Do they remember/celebrate his victory, yes.

 @scantregard: His comments would have more weight if he had ever won Worlds. As it is, any argument he has for being one of the top 5 in history is predicated on discounting the value of being world champ.

 @arek: The flip side of this is how angry / annoyed some racers get when someone like PFP can plan a peak as well as she does.

One of the best expressions of this was at the 2015 World CX Champs (which PFP took amid her 'all three rainbows' year). Sanne Cant was the CX World Cup winner, but had to prepare for a completely different level of racing in January and February, when PFP & Marianne Vos did their one month CX season.

As long as we have multidiscipline athletes, and Ineos seems keen to celebrate having two of the best now, I'm sure they'll need to keep their focus on top events rather than entire seasons.

 I agree that the world champ vs. overall champ is confusing, I also think it is ridiculous that the world champ race occurs in the middle of the regular season. Riders within striking distance of the overall often ride more conservatively at Worlds, whereas those that already blew their chances for the overall go hard. If Worlds was at the end of the season, I bet there would be more riders with both Overall and Worlds titles in the same year (or podiums anyway)

 @aquanut: the victory focus is an interesting one… victories are really a team sport win/lose metric where there could be 100+ games in a year. Racing is a placement sport, and accumulated points generally define talent. F1, moto gp, WRC etc all use a points ranking system for the same reasons.

To me, it’s like randomly choosing this years Australian F1 race as World Champs and so Leclerc is the 2022 World Champion. He might have won that race, but ridiculous to make the claim or argue it in his favour.

The funny thing is that I enjoy world champs and the extra energy as much as anybody. Maybe just call the winner something else.. like the Premier Fromage or something, and reserve the highly visible rainbow jersey and World Champion title for the winner of the overall.

 @g123: We'll agree to disagree. It's not a racing vs. team sport issue, we just place different emphasis on things. Tiger Woods said judge me solely on Majors because that's all I care about. PFP is the same way. She goes for the big races. It's not random if everyone knows which race in a give year is going to be given the extra attention.

 @arek: "I think she'd get much more respect if she had done the whole (or most) WC races AND won the XCO Worlds"

She raced 6 out of the 9 WC races... I think that counts as "most"... She missed Leogang because of an injury and decided to skip the 2 North American races for logistical reasons.

She also had one of the busiest and most successful racing schedules in 2022 than almost anybody:

Cape Epic (third)
6 out of the 9 WC events (one XCO win and two XCC wins)
XCC World Championships (first)
XCO World Championships (first)
XCM World Championships (first)
European XCO Championships (second)
French National XCO Championships (second)
French National XCC Championships (first)
French National XCM Championships (second)
French Cup Superdevoluy (second)
Roc d'Azur (first)
ÖKK Bike Revolution Huttwil (first)
Gravel World Championships (first)

But you have more respect for the women on the overall WC podium?... I guess that's just you!

 @billreilly: this ^

 She won UCI WCup Overall..not World Championship race! Easy to entiende.

 I feel that rainbow jersey should go to the overall winner not the world championship one day race. I had this thoughts long before PFP performance this season.

 low iq take

 Not to discredit Keller, because I think you're correct, she definitely deserves the recognition for an incredible race season, but PFP has also won the overall before (in 2020). She also raced the Cape Epic before the UCI began this year, and explained in an interview that this had an impact on her early season performance and training approach.

As a fellow bike dork, I will note that PFP also just won the Roc d'Azur less than 24 hours after winning the gravel worlds. The streak she's been on since mid-August is unprecedented. I suppose people have their reasons for rooting against PFP, but I think it's wrong to suggest she plans out her race seasons based on what will generate the most fame and money. To use her words, she simply "likes winning".

 PFP and a few others decided to focus on European Championship, World Championships this year, it is not the first time and not the last the prize money on UCI MTB WC events makes it sometimes difficult to justify making the trip to North America. American riders are forced to get a European base because most events are held there, but there are only 2 events on our side of the Atlantic.

The fact that at this year's North American events the women's field did not reach 30 riders without having a dozen US or Canadian riders to make the field should be an eye-opener for the UCI but also the industry.

The purse throughout the field should be much bigger and brands should hire a lot more women riders. Right now the ratio is pretty close to 3 men for 1 woman per team if not 4 to 1, There are a few exceptions (Ghost) but when some riders do not show up at an event or two it shows. The list of top riders who did not make it to North America for one reason or another (Lecomte, Stigger, PFP, Richards...) was staggering. Hopefully, since Discovery is now in charge and wants to put out there the best pay per view events, they never do anything for free, the purse will be raised significantly. And the incentive to travel will be increased greatly.

Back on topic PFP deserves to get that Ineos Grenadier deal. Knowing her, it will be pretty much like a sponsorship deal as she is set to keep her Ravanel's team around her while Tom Pidcock will keep going back and forth between road and mountain.

 @NedaSay: To confirm how paltry the fields at MSA were, I traveled from the US up the quebec and attended short track and downhill and literally didn't attend XCO because it didn't feel worth it. And I'm a big fan. As you say, the lack of attendance from top riders was alarming and my hope is riders are better incentivized by discovery and their teams to attend all world cups and not simply just save themselves for a shot at the stripes.

 perhaps she meant team BMC?

 it was not BMC but her BMC MTB Racing team, AKA Absolute Absalon racing is run by none other than PFP ex-boyfriend, they had a falling out and it was obvious at events that she was not going to spend any time at the BMC team stand. I think she liked the BMC bikes but was very much working in isolation. She even relocated to be closer to her coach mid-season.

 @NedaSay:

Well, Ineos runs Pinarellos, and they don’t make a mtb. Tom Pidcock rides a BMC in his mtb events tho. I don’t know if he’s contractually obligated to do so, or just likes the bikes.

 @hllclmbr:
Pinarello are developing a cross country racing bike in readiness for 2024 season.