Mauritian Olympic cyclist Kim le Court (28) spent time in Pilgrim’s Rest recently, hard at work in altitude training as she starts her 2025 cycling season this week.

Le Court is currently in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to compete in the UAE Tour Women, the third event on the 2025 UCI Women’s World Tour and her first of the year. As a member of the AG Insurance-Soudal team, Le Court has been hard at work in the preseason to prepare for what she hopes will be a highly successful year.

A good portion of her preparation was done in Pilgrim’s Rest of all places, where she stayed at the Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge and carried out very important altitude training. “Our team typically does our sprints training in Spain, but this part of the world is really special and beautiful, and the perfect place for altitude training,” Le Court said during an interview with Lowvelder.

“There really is everything I need here. The facilities at Crystal Springs offer everything I need to both relax and rehabilitate after training hard on the road.”

Another large drawcard that attracted Le Court to the Lowveld is the proximity to home. “I already spend a lot of time overseas, away from home throughout the year. Here I can get this kind of training done only a couple of hours’ flight from Cape Town. Ian [her husband] was able to join me here and help a lot with my training too, so it’s been great having him by my side,” Le Court said.

Something that blew her away during her time in Pilgrim’s Rest is the scenery. “Every time I came over Robbers Pass, I was just taken aback by how beautiful it is here. People say I’m crazy, but to me it feels like I’m in the movie Avatar among these mountains and it is truly a special place.”

Born in Mauritius, Le Court now resides in Cape Town, having married Ian Pienaar in late 2023. Her professional cycling career started nearly a decade ago, but she opted out of a career in road cycling to take on mountain biking instead.

“There really wasn’t a lot of backing for women’s professional cycling in the country [Mauritius] back then, which is ultimately why I moved over to mountain biking.” Le Court has enjoyed a highly fruitful mountain bike career. She has won titles in the Absa Cape Epic, the Swiss Epic, the African Continental Championships and even a top 10 finish at the world championships. But through it all, she always had a desire to return to road cycling at some point.

The kicker came in 2023 at the UCI Cycling World Championships where she finished 10th in the mountain bike marathon and also participated in the road race. Her husband reached out to many a team in a bid to secure Le Court a place in a professional women’s road cycling team.

That’s when she received positive news from the AG Insurance-Soudal team. “I’m very fortunate and grateful that they were willing to take a gamble on me, considering I was an MTB cyclist,” Le Court said humbly.

But she’s since made the most of it, securing a two-year contract extension with the team in October last year. This came only a few months after Le Court emerged victorious in the final stage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women, her first major road victory.

The 2025 season is a big one for Le Court as she will be filling a specific role in the team now. “I consider myself an all-rounder, but after a full year with the team we are now better able to identify exactly what each rider brings to the team and what specific role each of us will fill.”

Le Court is a proud Mauritian and flies her country’s flag high on the international stage. If not for a technical mishap during the 2024 Paris Olympics, she could very well be an Olympic medallist already. But her hopes are not lost just yet. “My work for the 2028 Olympics started the day after Paris ended. I am determined to be there and compete well, and represent Mauritius well.”

She also feels as though the South African cycling community has adopted her as one of its own, which helps expand her support base somewhat. “I’m very lucky to have a lot of people all around the world behind me, supporting me on my journey, and I can’t wait to make everyone proud.”

Le Court hopes to peak in terms of fitness and readiness at the end of March, and intends to take part in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes in late July.