Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar is a history maker. When she joined the AG Insurance-Soudal Team in 2024, she became the first Mauritian rider – man or woman – to compete in the WorldTour. Since then, she’s been putting her small nation on professional cycling’s map. The 29-year-old’s route to road racing’s top table has been far from typical; her background is in mountain biking (she’s won African championships in the discipline, just missed out on a medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and triumphed in the 2023 Swiss Epic) and she’s had to graft hard to get her chances on the tarmac.
AG Insurance-Soudal took a chance on Le Court in 2024 – after she and her husband spent the winter sending emails to all of the WorldTour squads asking for a shot – and the Dutch team could hardly have wished for a better return on their investment since then. The results came early and fast last season with top-10 finishes in the Classics and a Giro d’Italia Women stage win, but 2025 has seen Le Court exceed all expectations.
The signs of a big victory were all there: the Mauritian rider raced in Trofeo Binda, Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and Flèche Wallonne this season without finishing outside the top-five, but Liège-Bastogne-Liège was when it all came together for the plucky underdog. Le Court rode the tough Ardennes Classic with the determination and spirit that has got her this far in her career: she was dropped and out of position but fought hard up the final climb of Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons to claw her way back to the front group of favourites. This is who Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar is: she does not give up, even if the odds are against her.
"To be honest when I bridged the gap on Roche-aux-Faucons I really felt strong compared to the others. When I bridged to them I saw they were really suffering, of course I was suffering too but for me to make that effort to bridge to them I knew I had maybe a bit more legs,” Le Court smiled in her post-race interview.
Once she had made it over to the lead group, Le Court still had the challenge of winning the sprint against more established and experienced WorldTour professionals. However, she rode the last kilometres with the skill and tactical prowess of someone who has been competing in the finals of Monuments for decades. Le Court did not get drawn into taking the front and going early like FDJ-Suez’s Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering did. Instead, the 29-year-old watched, waited and her patience paid off. One powerful, arrow-straight sprint through the centre of the finishing straight gave Le Court the biggest victory of her career – a huge moment for both herself and Mauritian cycling.
“I just kicked and never looked back in the sprint. I could see Puck [Pieterse’s] jersey but I just didn’t stop,” she said afterwards.
The elation of both Le Court and her teammates was palpable in the post-race scenes of celebration: she hugged the likes of Urška Žigart with the relief of a bike rider who has worked a long time for this moment.
“I’ve come so close this whole season and have aimed for Liège-Bastogne-Liège the whole year,” Le Court commented. “This is the last Classic and the one I really wanted to win – I can’t believe we made it, as a team.”
The emotion truly surfaced for Le Court when she was on the podium and heard the Mauritian national anthem. A victory in one of the most prestigious bike races in the world, for a rider from a country with a population of just one million people, against those who have professional bike racing deep in the history of their nations, Le Court’s win puts a huge spotlight on African cycling. It’s a victory that will go down in the history of sport in Mauritius. Perhaps most exciting of all, is that it feels like this is just the beginning of what is still to come from Kim Le Court.
“I saw the Mauritian flag on the side of the course at one point,” she smiled after the race. “I’m so proud and happy I could finally give them this win.”
