From world champion XCM to WorldTour cyclist: Kate Courtney signs with FDJ United-SUEZ

The surprising sports transformation of Kate Courtney has just led to a signing that just a few months ago would have been hard to imagine. The current champion of the United States in road cycling and world champion of XCM has signed with FDJ United-SUEZ and is immediately joining the French WorldTour team with a contract that will extend until the end of 2028.

Kate Courtney makes the definitive leap to road cycling and signs with FDJ United-SUEZ until 2028

Courtney, 30 years old, will make her debut in her new colors this week at La Périgord Ladies, on July 18. Her schedule also includes the Picto-Charentaise and the Tour of Britain Women, scheduled from August 19 to 23.

The signing represents the definitive commitment of the American to road cycling after a sports evolution as rapid as it was unexpected. In just over a year, Courtney has gone from focusing her career on long-distance MTB to becoming the U.S. national champion and securing a two-and-a-half-season contract with one of the most important teams in the Women’s WorldTour.

From leaving SCOTT SRAM to creating her own project

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To understand this surprising change of direction, we must go back to late 2024, when Kate Courtney ended her long stint with SCOTT SRAM. The 2018 XCO world champion and overall winner of the World Cup in 2019 left the team after several challenging seasons with the intention of embarking on a new sports chapter.

In 2025, she created her own project, She Sends Racing, and put the XCO World Cup on the back burner to focus mainly on long-distance events. The decision could not have worked out better.

Courtney won the Leadville Trail 100 MTB shattering the record of the historic American event and later closed the season by winning the XCM World Championship. Seven years after being crowned XCO world champion, the American donned the rainbow jersey again, this time in the marathon discipline.

Everything indicated that 2026 would serve to consolidate this new path. Courtney began this season competing in the Cape Epic, although her participation ended earlier than expected after her partner had to withdraw from the race.

What happened next completely changed the course of her season and, probably, the last stage of her professional career.

From winning her first UCI race to becoming U.S. champion

In May, Kate Courtney decided to try her luck at the Tour de Feminin in the Czech Republic with the U.S. team. She was practically unknown in professional road cycling and had not competed in a road event since she was 16. But the result was immediate.

Courtney won the fourth stage of the race, achieving victory in her first participation in a UCI road event. Just a few weeks later, she surprised again by winning the U.S. Championship, where she out-sprinted Lauren Stephens to claim the national title.

Two victories that have definitively accelerated her leap into professional road cycling.

FDJ United-SUEZ has decided to bet on the potential of a cyclist who, despite having extensive experience at the highest sports level, has only just begun her learning in this discipline.

“Kate is a magnificent athlete whose profile shows great potential in short and medium climbs and in demanding efforts. We are very excited to help her as she discovers European road cycling,” explained Stephen Delcourt, general director of FDJ United-SUEZ.

Delcourt also highlighted the team's historic commitment to cyclists from other disciplines, a philosophy that perfectly fits a rider who has been world champion in both XCO and XCM before winning the U.S. road championship.

“I never expected to make the leap to WorldTour so quickly,”

Courtney herself acknowledges that even she did not expect her arrival at the highest level of road cycling to happen so quickly.

“It’s hard to put into words what this opportunity means to me. I never expected to make the leap to WorldTour so quickly, and I am very motivated to take on this huge challenge and really discover what I am capable of as an athlete and as a person in this last chapter of my career,” Courtney explained.

The American also emphasized the sporting philosophy of her new team as one of the reasons that makes this new project particularly exciting.

“The way the team competes, aggressively, fearlessly, and with absolute confidence among its riders, inspired me as a fan. Now it inspires me even more as a cyclist,” she assured.

Courtney will share a team with some of the best riders in the international peloton, including Demi Vollering, and will face an intense adaptation process to the calendar and tactical particularities of European cycling.

Her debut with FDJ United-SUEZ will come on July 18 at La Périgord Ladies and her participation in the Tour of Britain Women is also planned.

The big question is whether she will defend her victory in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB beforehand. The American event takes place just four days before the start of the Tour of Britain Women, and for now, her participation has not been confirmed.

Whatever the decision, the signing confirms a radical change in Kate Courtney's career. In just two seasons, she has left the XCO World Cup, created her own team, broken the record of the Leadville Trail 100, won the XCM World Championship, won her first UCI road race, and donned the jersey of U.S. champion.

Now, her next challenge will be to discover how far she can go in the Women’s WorldTour.