'No unrealistic expectations or unnecessary limitations' - Kate Courtney is diving head-first into the unknown

Ominous cloud formations gather over the Cumbrian market town of Penrith in late August, where the FDJ United-SUEZ team are staying ahead of the 2026 Tour of Britain Women. Temperatures are more than twenty degrees cooler here than the peloton has experienced throughout the summer while racing in mainland Europe as autumn draws nearer in northern England.

There is a sense of transition in the air in more ways than one as Cyclingnews sits down with the team’s new signing, Kate Courtney, on the eve of her WorldTour debut. The American has been thrust into a new world, having left behind the XCO mountain bike circuit, and is about to find out for the first time whether she can match some of the best road racers on the planet on Britain’s rolling terrain.

"So many things have happened in such a short period of time that it actually makes it feel like it's been longer than it has been," Courtney says, reflecting on a whirlwind few months. "But looking back, it really has been quite accelerated, and I'm just really excited to be here."

"There were a lot of quick moves and decisions that had to be made in order to get me to the start line. Knowing that I get to line up this week, it's all worth that."

Courtney is one of the USA’s best-known racers and has been among the world’s top mountain bikers for almost a decade, winning the XCO world title in 2018. Just 97 days before the Tour of Britain, she lined up in her first UCI road race in Czechia in a bid to test out a possible career switch from fat tyres to thin ones.

Her potential was immediately confirmed, winning a hilly final stage at the UCI 2.2 level Tour de Feminin in Krásná Lípa. Even before that achievement, Courtney reveals that she had already been negotiating a full-time switch to road racing, with a home Olympic Games in Los Angeles a particular target in two years’ time.

After winning again at the US National Championships in Charleston, Courtney’s move to FDJ United-SUEZ until at least 2028 was confirmed, just before the French team also announced a sponsorship deal with Red Bull, who have been a personal sponsor of Courtney since 2017.

"I'd had a lot of conversations prior even to that race in Czechia - which is a bit crazy that even before racing I knew that that's a jump that I wanted to make - and started to explore the opportunities," Courtney says.

"The FDJ opportunity actually came about before Nationals and was a really exciting opportunity that was a bit non-standard, I would say, but was one that just seemed like the perfect fit and was worth doing a lot to pursue."

"A lot of things are changing very quickly and all at once, but it's also a long process, and it's really nice to have what I would call a head start this year to start to dial in everything from bike fit to where I might base next season in Europe, and to have a bit of a head start in knowing what I'm going to need to be both successful but also happy in a whole new environment and world chasing this new dream."

From the mud to the road

The multi-disciplinary phenomenon in professional cycling is becoming more and more common, with many riders now encouraged to take up different disciplines from a young age. More seldom is Courtney’s case, as a rider who has excelled in one discipline transitioning into another where she has almost zero experience.

Ahead of May’s Tour de Feminin in Czechia, Courtney had only raced a few times on the road among the amateur peloton. Road racing in UCI events, and certainly in the WorldTour, was entirely new.

"When I was racing in Czechia, the goal was to really experience the European peloton and see how I felt within that environment and determine whether I loved learning in that environment," she says.

"When I knew I loved the racing and most of all I loved learning all the intricacies of road, I felt really confident committing to this path. What I'm committing to really is a long process of learning and experimentation and being thrown in the deep end and figuring it out."

There is a great deal that sets road racing apart from the mountain bike scene. The speed, racing tactics and bumping shoulders with competitors are elements that Courtney needs to excel in if she is to succeed. Racing in Czechia was an eye-opener.

"It was really overwhelming at first for me," Courtney says, describing her first UCI road racing experience. "I think for anyone who jumps into a 170-person bunch for the first time, it's just so many new stimuli that it's hard to relax a bit.

"I think for me a lot of this has been about finding the places that my skill set transfers, so I think once I got through that first day I started to realise that my bike handling transfers; positioning is not all that different than in a short track or in a super competitive World Cup mountain bike race, and I've been doing that since I was a kid.

"So finding the confidence that I can bridge the gap where my skill set is lacking, but also rely on a decade of racing experience. I think that's part of the process right now, just getting comfortable and getting confident with that skill set and applying it to an entirely new sport."

At the Tour of Britain, Courtney’s education took another leap. Her 11th-place finish in the overall classification and fourth on the penultimate stage to Hay-on-Wye revealed without doubt that she has the legs to compete at this level.

She would, however, be involved in an unusual uphill crash on stage 4, crossing wheels with her teammate Lauren Dickson as she led the peloton on a steep ascent. Described as "an unfortunate touch of wheels" by Dickson afterwards, whether it was just bad luck or inexperience showing through, the incident can be notched as another lesson learned.

"I'm totally not afraid of her bike handling skills or her feeling of riding in the bunch. I think it will be fine. For her, it's just getting to learn the peloton, the level," FDJ United-SUEZ sports director Lars Boom told Cyclingnews ahead of the race. "It's a WorldTour race. There's some really strong riders. And it's just a quest for her to see what she can do."

No 'unrealistic expectations, or unnecessary limitations'

Now 30, Courtney signed off her mountain biking career – at least for now – as cross-country marathon world champion, a title she won in Verbier last year.

The San Francisco native devoted more than two decades of her life to mountain biking, so one might assume the transition away from that community, which has given her so much, would be a wrench for Courtney. However, she takes an entirely different perspective, retaining a fondness for mountain biking but choosing to look at what’s ahead, rather than what’s gone before.

"My husband has often given me the advice that in life you want to move towards things, not away from them. So moving towards something that's really exciting or motivating or where you have a lot to learn is always how I try to make decisions and how I try to structure what I'm working for, and that was certainly the case with the road."

"It's not about leaving mountain biking. I love the discipline. I grew up racing mountain bikes; I've raced mountain bikes my entire life. It's more about following the curiosity and the excitement for something new, which obviously comes with some sacrifices both personally and professionally, making big changes in order to take these next steps in my career."

Managing extreme change can be an even greater mental challenge than a technical one. Courtney comes across as highly confident and self-assured, as though none of this fazes her one bit.

But what if road racing doesn’t work out? Does Courtney’s new set of wheels come with a hint of doubt?

"Being in the team with FDJ, with the performance team we have, with the other riders we have, I really don't feel pressure, and I feel really insulated from that outside doubt," she says.

"For me it's about being in the right environment where I have the opportunity to learn and push myself and test myself, but also be realistic about where I am in the process."

"Inside, I know this is what I want to do. I'm confident in my abilities as an athlete, and I will learn, so there's really no reason to have either unrealistic expectations or unnecessary limitations on what I can achieve."

"I think that the mental side of the sport takes a lot of work and it's a lot of the game, but one of the things that's really fun for me in this period is that it's clear I'm trying something new, it's clear this is my first WorldTour race, and so I feel the freedom to go out and experiment and see where I am, but also know that that's not the final answer, that's actually the starting point."

Riding with purpose for She Sends

Beyond racing, Courtney is a firm believer in the power of cycling and its ability to empower women. She set up the She Sends Foundation in 2023, providing grants and exposure to projects across the USA to promote female participation in mountain biking.

Courtney went a step further in 2025, racing under the She Sends banner with the foundation’s logo emblazoned on her kit. The foundation continues to be a driver for her, but her FDJ United-SUEZ contract means that she can no longer have the logo on show at races. However, her road switch could open up opportunities for the foundation to branch out to the discipline in the future.

"The foundation is still operating in the same way as before, just not on my jersey," Courtney explains.

"I think that there's a huge opportunity to expand the mission and step outside of just off-road racing for the foundation, and in my mind women's cycling is niche enough and being able to be a bit more cross-disciplinary in our initiatives would be really exciting. I also just think it's an amazing moment in women's cycling and I'm hoping that this change will only increase my ability to contribute in the future."

The Foundations gives Courtney a purpose in her racing beyond mere results. Her push for Olympic success is about more than just herself.

"I think having a mission and a purpose behind what you do makes it harder to give up. It makes it a lot more meaningful when it pays off, and I think it also gives you the opportunity to live your values in any moment in sport."

"I think at the end of the day we have a huge opportunity to inspire the next generation, and a responsibility to do so as well."

After several months of Europe ended at the Tour of Britain, Courtney headed home for three weeks for a period of consistent training ahead of the next major step in her road racing experiment.

That next step is a first-time ride at the Road World Championships, her Nationals win earning her automatic selection to the US team and an accelerated chance to take on one of the biggest events of the year. The fast-approaching Worlds in Montreal, Canada, will provide Courtney with yet another 'first' in a year in which everything has changed.