Kim Le Court is talking about the time, around two-and-a-half years ago, when a host of professional cycling teams rejected the opportunity to sign her.

“A few teams said no, saying they were full,” Le Court, from Mauritius, tells The Athletic. “A few others asked for data but only AG Insurance-Soudal seemed really interested. Now, looking back at all the other teams who I spoke with, almost every manager regrets it.”

And for good reason: in just two short seasons, Le Court has transitioned from a 27-year-old newbie to one of the best cyclists on the planet — becoming the first African woman to win a Monument (Liège-Bastogne-Liège) — one of cycling’s most illustrious one-day races — and to wear yellow (for four days) in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

But in fairness to all those teams who said no in late 2023, Le Court admits she herself would have said the same thing. “I understood where they were coming from because if I was in their position looking at my results I wouldn’t have signed myself. So I don’t blame them.”

The reason is that Le Court’s first forays into professional road cycling, back in 2015 and 2016, were a disaster. “I wasn’t a pro — I was a survivor. I was actually an idiot, that’s what I was,” she laughs.

She then spent seven years out of the road scene, working as a coach, a bike fitter, and then winning the biggest mountain bike race of all — the Cape Epic in South Africa — that paved the way for her incredibly successful return to the peloton.

Long before all of that, Le Court almost died from malaria aged three, and nearly ended up moving to the U.S. as a teenager to play college soccer. You could write a book on Le Court’s travels and travails, but the best chapters, she insists, are still to be written. “I think the sky’s the limit for me,” she says.

This weekend she goes in search of winning her second Monument: Milan-Sanremo.

This article was published by The Athletic/New York Times in March 2026. To read the full article click here.