'I have no words'- Mauritius' Kim Le Court makes her dream a reality at Giro d'Italia Women
AG Insurance-Soudal rider wins final stage ahead of Edwards and Koch, sealing her first WorldTour win
Mauritius champion Kim Le Court came full circle at the Giro d’Italia Women, putting to bed some old pain.
In 2016, Le Court made her first appearance at the Giro. She was just 20, racing for the Spanish Bizkaia - Durango team. Having raced the prologue, Le Court was unable to finish the first road stage of the race after crashing and picking up an injury. At the end of that season she returned home to South Africa without a contract and without a future in the sport.
“It was a completely different scene back then,” Le Court told Global Peloton in April. “I was also not getting any financial help from the team at the time and my brother was also racing in Europe, so my parents were helping us both financially and it came to the point where it was a lot and just almost impossible.”
“I also had really bad injuries in 2016 in Bizkaia where I crashed in the Giro, fractured quite a lot of ribs and broke my toe and got kidney infection and all sorts of bad luck.”
“Financially it was really, really tough and it felt like there was no way to go. Why am I really financially putting my parents in strain and myself and stress? I wasn't able to race my bike in a calm head space.”
“When I came back to SA, I almost stopped cycling completely just because it was a lot to handle.”
Eight years on, Le Court is back in the sport at the highest level and is now a winner of a Grand Tour stage having taken victory in stage 8 of the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women. As she put it in her post-race interview, Le Court has “proved that it's possible” for riders from different backgrounds to make it in the sport if they have they talent, the grit and access to opportunities.
"I have no words," Le Court said after the stage. "I think being in this bunch and on the start of any race this year in the WorldTour has been a dream and it's something I've always wanted.”
"It's always something you dream of but you never know if it's possible because I always see the others are stronger than me and today I proved that it's possible and it's not only for me but this is for the team. We've had a bit of bad luck in the Giro and it's super cool to finish in this way."
The final stage of the Giro was all about the battle for pink with Lotte Kopecky trailing Elisa Longo Borghini by just one second going into the stage. Kopecky was chasing bonus seconds, so it was advantageous for Lidl-Trek to allow a move to go up the road.
With around 40km to go, Franziska Koch (DSM) and Ruth Edwards (HPH) made a move off the front. Le Court missed it initially and had to bridge across, admitting that she was “cooked” having made the effort.
The trio built a healthy advantage and worked together well before duking it out on the final climb up to L’Aquila. Le Court dug in, trusting her sprint and coming around Edwards in the last 100 metres.
“We went into the stage following every single move, we went in with the mindset of all or nothing,” Le Court said to Pro Cycling Women. “I lost a lot of time on GC so I had the mind-set of give it everything or come last.”
“I followed every single move I could follow, which was over twenty moves and finally the one move went away with Ruth and Koch and I actually bridged the gap to them because they were actually going away and SD Worx couldn't close it, so I saw that the opportunity was there. When I got to them, I was pretty cooked, but I managed to save myself. And with Jolien [Dhoore] in my ear, telling me exactly what to do each single metre, I won because she guided me to the line.”
“I was playing a little bit of the game of I'm actually cooked, and I won't be able to follow you. And then when [Edwards] went, I saw the opportunity of countering and seeing if she has the legs as well, which she did, and that made me a bit nervous because I didn't actually know how the finish was exactly. I knew it was going to be an uphill finish, but I was also cooked. Jolien told me to just follow her. She has a good kick and luckily I have a better kick.”
“This win is not only for myself, but it's for everyone that supports me back home, and especially the team.”
Le Court is the arrowhead of a burgeoning cycling scene in Mauritius. We’ve reported heavily on it on Global Peloton from their growing national men’s tour to Alex Mayer winning the African Games this season and more. Le Court’s success will inspire more cyclists in Mauritius to believe that cycling is a sport they can pursue.
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