Kim Le Court on Milan-Sanremo - 'It's going to be special'
Global Peloton speaks to AG Insurance - Soudal leader about targeting Sanremo, her return after injury and facing the favourites
While planning her 2025 season over the winter, Kim Le Court and her AG Insurance - Soudal team put a circle around the 22nd of March.
The Mauritian national champion believes that Milan-Sanremo is a race that suits her characteristics, with its short power climbs and the likelihood of a small group sprint. She has made the race, which is returning to the women’s peloton after a 20-year hiatus, her first major target for the season.
“It's going to be special,” Le Court told Global Peloton over the phone while recovering on the beach after a four-hour recon ride of the course on Wednesday.
“I think no one really knows what to expect. If you've done it a few times, you kind of know going into the race normally there's this, normally there's that, but this time we really don't know how it's going to pan out. So it's quite exciting to be part of the first comeback of Sanremo.”
Le Court describes herself as an all-rounder; a rider who can climb, sprint and attack, but she is also a rider who is best when the racing is hard. Having looked closely at the finale of the race this week, she’s unsure how hard the Poggio will be for the women, who won’t have seven-plus hours of racing in their legs before they reach it, like the men.
With the possibility that the race may not be as selective as the men’s, Le Court is conscious of saving energy early on, and taking advantage of her descending skills.
“I think it will be about saving as much energy as possible before getting onto the Cipressa,” Le Court says, without underestimating the Tre Capi which pre-empt the famous penultimate climb of the race. “I would hope that the pace will be really high up those climbs so that we get to a reduced bunch before Poggio. You don't want to get into Poggio with a massive bunch. That would be quite hectic.”
“I think positioning will be super important. And the downhill, to be honest, is probably the one thing I'm focusing the most on. I think you can really lose a race there - win or lose the race, actually.”
“You've got to have quite good power. I would say it's probably for an all-rounder. But after riding the climbs, I expected more, to be honest. Watching it on TV and stuff, it looks hella hard, but I'm sure it's going to be crazy hard on Saturday. I don't know if like big sprinters and things are going to drop from those climbs. It'll have to be a proper hard pace up there to do that.”
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The men’s race over the years has shown that anything can happen in Milan-Sanremo. Le Court is an outside favourite, considering that she is up against serial winners like Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes and Demi Vollering.
However, turning 29 the day after the race, Le Court is dreaming of an early birthday present in raising her hands on the Via Roma. If she does so, she would become the first African woman in history to win a WorldTour one-day race.
“That would be crazy. For me, for the team and for everyone else supporting me, of course, for my country as well, it would be super special. I've been wanting to win other races, but to get Milan-Sanremo would be indescribable to be honest. It would be crazy, wouldn't it? I think everyone wants it.”
‘It's been eye-opening’
Le Court is coming into the race high on confidence and form after recovering from surgery on her wrist over the winter. She finished her 2024 season after racing her first Tour de France Femmes and only returned last month at the UAE Tour - a six month layoff. It was uncertain how she would respond on return to competition, but she achieved her best-ever GC result with third place overall.
Having fully recovered from her injury, Le Court says that the break from racing has been a blessing, giving her the opportunity to focus on training and preparing for the new season. She appears to be reaping the benefits.
“I've changed my whole training strategy going into 2025,” she says. “I’ve really focussed on nutrition and I did some altitude in South Africa, and gym work, which I've never ever done in my life before…It's small things, but it's things that I've ticked-off that other people do and I've just neglected in the past.”
“UAE was more of a test race to kind of see where my form is at and what can I work on better. I really wasn't plan A or plan B in UAE at all, perhaps plan C. We went there with Ash [Moolman Pasio] and Urška [Žigart] and I was really surprised when I climbed the way I did. It's the best result I've gotten.”
“It's been eye-opening and I started getting a whole lot of confidence there already going into the next races.”
After UAE, Le Court made her European season debut at Strade Bianche, finishing 14th, before a top-10 at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, where she showed impressive legs to follow several attacks by Demi Vollering.
Le Court is keen to prove herself against the best riders in the world. She admits that her positioning was off the mark at Binda, meaning she had to respond to moves from favourites from far back in the group. She hopes to compete on a more level playing field on Saturday by being in the top few positions on the Poggio.
“I think at Binda, I was badly positioned into both climbs. So that was very unfortunate. I had to make a huge effort to just bridge the gap. So I really hope I'll be in a better position…I could have used that energy to just do something special or make a difference in the race. So positioning is most important in the race so I can save as much energy and be on the wheel of the attack to be able to afterwards maybe make a difference. So Binda didn't go exactly like I wanted in terms of the positioning, but I still managed to get there with the top contenders in the break, which was a really big motivator for me, to be honest.”
“I've never had the chance to [race against the big favourites] just because of being really new in the bunch and still learning and gaining respect with the peloton. I think I'm getting there slowly, but I really just want to get the opportunity to be there next to them and being able to really produce what I can physically and not having to bridge every gap and then try and do something else, because that's just a whole lot of racing energy. So I hope it's different Saturday.”
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Awesome interview. I’m so stoked for women’s MSR. I think Kopecky is going to lead Wiebes out for the win though