Pauline Ferrad Prevot (France) wins her first Cyclocross World Championships, outsprinting Sanne Cant (Belgium). 2015 World Championships, Tabor. © Matthew Lasala / Cyclocross Magazine
Elite Women’s Cyclocross World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot crashed this week while training, suffering a tibial plateau fracture, which will sideline her for six weeks.
The news was first reported by the Rabobank-Liv Twitter account.
During training suffered knee injury keeps @FERRANDPREVOT 6 weeks inactive. Unlikely that she comes into action this cross season #RaboLiv
— Rabobank – Liv (@RaboLiv) November 26, 2015
Prevot planned to race late season and defend her world title January 31, 2016 at the Cyclocross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. While the six-week recovery time frame would put her back in action in time to race in Zolder, she seems to have called it quits on ‘cross for this year.
Blessure au genou : fracture du plateau tibial. Adieu à ma saison de cyclo-cross
— PFP (@FERRANDPREVOT) November 26, 2015
A completely understandable move, as Prevot is a triple-threat with World Championships in ‘cross, road racing and mountain biking. She will focus her attention to the 2016 Rio games where she stands a shot at three medals: mountain bike, road race and time trial.
Whether it be the curse of the World Champion—Elite Men’s champ Mathieu van der Poel made his return to racing this weekend at Koksijde after missing the early season due to a knee injury—or just plain bad luck, we hate to see a cyclocrosser at any level out due to injury, and hope to see Prevot back on the course soon.
