Women’s WorldTour Stories: Strade Bianche, Trofeo Alfredo Binda & Milan-Sanremo by Kim Le Court Pienaar

Trofeo Alfredo Binda has given me a lot of confidence and motivation for Milan-Sanremo

AG Insurance-Soudal rider Kim Le Court Pienaar competed in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and spent time in a long breakaway group of 14 riders. They didn’t quite manage to stay away right to the finish line, but the Mauritian National Champion managed to sprint to 9th place. 

Photo credit: Wout Beel & Cedric Praetere

Alfredo Binda result:

1. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek)

2. Blanka Vas (Team SD Worx-Protime)

3. Cat Ferguson (Movistar Team)

4. Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike)

5. Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco)

9. Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal Team)

Kim talks about her season so far, and how she is looking forward to Milan-Sanremo:

Sanremo pre-race build-up

We have been in Alassio, which is along the route of the Milan-Sanremo. It’s really nice being on the beach and the weather is good for now, but I don’t know if it will be like that on Saturday for Sanremo.

The pictures would have been amazing if the weather was nice, but so far the weather forecast is not very good. But I’m looking forward to it, and we will do what we can. 

 

I only started racing in the WorldTour last year, so it’s only been half a year, but it’s been good.  Last year I had some good results. I came into this year with a completely different prep, so I was expecting better results than last year, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. 

UAE Tour was my first race of the season, and I wasn’t expecting to be third on GC [general classification] and so that was a really good result for myself – which helped my confidence and motivation for the next races. I had done Strade [Bianche] and [Trofeo Alfredo] Binda last year so I knew what was coming. 

How Strade and Binda were played out

In Strade I went into the race a completely different rider and wanted to do something special – I got into the break instead of just sitting on and trying to hope for the best. 

There were a lot of crashes, a lot of punctures. It’s one of those races where everything has to go your way because you could have any mechanicals or crashes or things like that, so I think you have to have the smoothest of days to get a good result. It’s not only about your physical strength but about luck and hoping it’s your day.

Luckily I didn’t have any incidents but my team-mates did. I narrowly missed a lot of crashes, and I jumped over one bike and managed not to crash! I made my way into the main breakaway, but then we got caught with 15km to go and my legs just gave up. I started cramping and that was it. So maybe I didn’t have a mechanical on the bike, but a mechanical in the legs!

In our group we were fighting for third place [behind Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen], but I had used all my matches early on and finished in 14th place. It is what it is, but I had been willing to go into the race with the mindset of losing it all to do something special. Unfortunately it didn’t work out this time – but maybe next time.

Racing at Alfredo Binda (Photo: Matteo Roose)

Binda was a great race. Obviously ninth is not what we wanted but the break I was in never managed to stay away on both occasions that we got away, and so obviously the sprinters came back. 

I’m not the fastest sprinter if I get someone like Elisa [Balsamo] next to me. Not being in a good position on the last lap in both of the climbs and having to bridge the gap to the best riders in the world such as Elisa and Demi, then being there with the top contenders is something super-special and I have now come out of that race having a lot of confidence and motivation and so it’s been super-special for me personally as a rider. 

I needed a race like Binda, as it is helpful for me, coming into the next few races. At Binda and at Strade I felt physically amazing and like my training was on point. Whatever I’d done in the off-season was paying off. Of course there’s still work to be done but so far I’m super-happy with how it’s going. 

Binda confidence-builder

However, I still fan-gaze other riders for sure! My team is trying to change that headspace of mine. For me it’s very different to come from nothing and being part of the best. It’s very strange, very weird to try and realise that I am one of them. I need to see them as just another rider. 

I’m the type of person on and off the bike that always questions herself and second guesses herself. I’ll feel great and I’ll have good races but I still have question marks about whether I am good enough and think they are better than me – especially when you are there with top girls like Demi and Elisa whom I’ve watched on TV since a young age. 

I think in sports you could be very strong but your head is the most important part of it, and maybe mine just needed a race like Binda where I was able to get a top 10 position even with what happened. 

My coach is one of the people who has helped with building my confidence, and for sure my team. The staff, the girls who have raced with me in Binda could see my strength, and they have told me how strong or impressive I was, and how I should believe in myself. 

Ash [Moolman Pasio], Gladys [Verhulst-Wild], Urška [Žigart] have congratulated me, and Jolien [D’hoore], the main sports director of the team gave me a call after the race.

I’m quite a gentle and soft person in the bunch so I get walked over quite easily but they tell me I need to be a bit more aggressive. So I have to work on that as well. I have to stop making friends in the bunch, but I like making friends! That’s just me – but I think overall, the whole team is just super.

Photo credit: Matteo Roose

Looking forward to the Poggio

 

I’m really excited about the Sanremo. I’m feeling great and we are all feeling super-excited for the race. I really don’t know what to expect. We’ve done the recon of the route. It looks good. So we will just have to see. The rain is going to come on Saturday so that might change a little bit of how the race goes but I’m excited to get going and to see how the race will go.

I think in the race you should probably be awake from about 50 to 40km to go. I would say from 50km to go because it starts getting into the small kickers towards the end. Also positioning before going into Cipressa and Poggio is super-important, as well as of course the downhill of Cipressa and Poggio. I think the downhills will be where everything will make a difference. You can win or lose a race in the downhill of Poggio. 

I could try and rely on my mountain bike abilities on the descents but the difference is that in mountain biking you are mostly alone when going downhill so you don’t have to worry about people around you, unlike in a road race. I hope the racing will be hard going uphill so that we are in a small group going into the Poggio at least, and not a big bunch on the downhill. 

Early beginnings and those African rainbow stripes

During the season I have an apartment in Girona, Spain. My parents live in Mauritius and I visit them when I go back for the National Championships, but my home is in Cape Town, South Africa. I settled there in 2021 and was in Pretoria before that.

As the National Champion of Mauritius I wear the jersey but I get a lot of comments about it. It was more last year than this year because it was new to people. At first people were really shocked about it, but slowly and surely in the season as I was racing and getting some results and getting interviewed about it multiple times I tried to always mention that it is my National Champion’s jersey – people need to know that it’s not my fault my national flag looks like the world champion’s jersey. I’ve seen people comment on social media asking what was invented first - Mauritius or UCI? The UCI approved it – they’re my country colours so you can’t really do anything about a flag. They can’t not approve it! Lotte [Kopecky – current World Road Race Champion]  said to me that in the beginning she thought, “What the hell is that?” But then she got used to it – it is what it is! 

Before coming to Europe to join AG Insurance-Soudal I did mountain bike racing around the African continent. Road racing was something I that had always been a dream of mine for a very long time. I was on the European scene in 2015 and 2016 but for smaller teams that weren’t World Tour back then. But that didn’t work out. I was still super-young, I wasn’t paid, which made it financially super-difficult and I felt lonely away from my family.

So I returned to Africa where I had a support network from my husband Ian, and my family, and I switched to the mountain bike. I did mountain biking all these years until I won the Cape Epic in 2023 and the Swiss Epic in the same year, and all the big mountain biking stage races.

 

Then my husband was like “Well what’s next? What now? Are you just going to carry on doing the same thing over and over or do you want to try and do road racing?” 

We could see the women’s scene and the peloton was getting really exciting, and growing enormously, but I replied, “You are mad! Nobody knows me and it’s such a small community. No one will give me a chance. I’m a mountain biker. I’ve no results on the road, no UCI points. I’ve got nothing.” 

He just said we should try, but I didn’t want to do it. I was just too scared to get rejected. In the end he said he would email people - so he did. He emailed and messaged every single team and finally we got a reply from a few teams. AG [Insurance-Soudal] was the one that stuck. They were also riding Specialized bikes in the team, which was the brand I was already on for mountain biking, so it made a lot of sense for me. AG gave me a chance in November 2023 and it’s because of my husband that I’m here actually. It was a really long shot! 

Photo credit: Matteo Roose

Warm welcome at AG Insurance-Soudal

For sure I was very nervous because of my experience in 2015 and 2016. I thought it would be unwelcoming and cold, as that’s the experience I had in the past. But in fact it was completely the opposite. I was super-welcomed. It was open arms from the first camp and after a few days I felt super-comfortable. I was super-shocked at how nice it was.

I am quite close to the Australian girls because we can kind of relate a little bit. We come from far and we have the same culture back home and we know what it feels like to be away so far from home. But I am also close to a lot of the girls - the new girls that just signed in the team now are super-nice, and I am close to Gaia [Masetti].

 

After Sanremo, I hope to have gelato and pizza and then stay with my team-mate Gladys in Nice. It’s my birthday on Sunday so I’ll go out somewhere nice in Nice with Gladys and join Urška and spend the day there or in Monaco.

There is a very friendly environment but at the end of the day it is a job, and you need to remember that this is work. We will see how things go at Sanremo, but we will do our best to get a result.   

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Women's WorldTour Stories: Strade Bianche by Mavi Garcia

Women's WorldTour Stories: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad by Alice Towers

Milan to Rapallo - The Long Saturday - Part 4 & Conclusion

After more twists and turns and drops I reached a T-junction with a main road. At this point there were streetlights and even a few cars. Not being entirely sure where I was, I consulted the map and found that I was in Cicagna. On the map it did not look far from the coast, but talking to the locals I realised I still had some way to go. And, guess what? More climbing!!

I popped into a bar where there were alot of people singing, dancing and merrymaking. It looked like the folks were having a salsa evening and people were speaking in Spanish. They were a little bemused to see a cycle tourist walking into their joint! "You want to go to Rapallo? Seriously, my friend. It's too far for you to travel. You've got a 10km climb up a steep hill and at this time of night going up that steep twisty road with no proper lights would be dangerous! Stay here, have a party. We have a spare room."

I still felt keen to stick to the plan. Anyway, my legs were too tired to do any salsa dancing and dancing in cycle racing shoes would look ridiculous, and may even be more dangerous! The woman then ended up having a debate with another reveller who seemed a bit drunk, but was suggesting that I ride 20km down to Chiavari and then ride up a shorter easier climb to Rapallo. I didn't really know who I should believe, but in any case I was fed up of cycling. It was after midnight. If I could find a taxi that would be the best solution for me.

The folks were friendly and they offered me a mojito, which made a change from the energy drinks I'd gotten a bit sick of. The guys were from Colombia and they were having an end of summer party. They were impressed at my cycling challenge, though the woman seemed worried about me. She probably thought I was half crazy! Maybe I was! The revellers wished me a safe journey, but not without warning me again not to take the direct road to Rapallo.

A few streets away I found an old man's local bar, and asked them about taxi ranks. Initially they said there was no firm in Cicagna, but if I headed 18km down the main road to Chiavari I would find taxi companies there and they could take me to Rapallo. I really wasn't in the mood to do any cycling. I had had enough of turning pedals. I asked if they had a telephone number of a firm but no one did.

The guys must have read the pained expression on my face when I realised I may have to do more riding. In the end, they called over another man who was a taxi driver but was not on duty that night. He agreed to take me to Rapallo. His usual catchment area was Genoa, but he would be able to take me to Rapallo. At that point Higg rang me, hoping to ask me how my ride had been. "You haven't arrived there yet??" He said, shocked. "But it must be going to 1 o'clock in the morning over there!"

"Er, yeah. But it's ok, I've found a guy who is going to give me a lift to the hotel." I explained to him.

He was mystified. "But what are you doing out riding at this time of the night, and who is this man?"

I was trying to talk to him but the taxi driver was asking me what time I wanted to leave. He was having a coffee and wanted to finish that before leaving. The bar man was also asking if I wanted a coffee, and the pals of the taxi driver were curiously asking about where I was from, how far I'd ridden etc. I couldn't properly answer Higg's questions while trying to make pleasantries in Italian with the blokes in the bar. Higg was a little annoyed at not being able to get proper answers from me, and being in London, powerless to help me out. The the last thing he heard from me, was when I told him I had to go, as I needed to load my bike into the taxi man's car.

The sight of a bona fide taxi cab gave me reassurance that this guy was not a crazy or a pervert, so I was happy to get in.

Rapallo was not far away - about 13km. However, it was quite a climb to get there. The taxi driver, who was called Giovanni, agreed that this would have been a pretty tough and dangerous climb to do at that time of night. It was different to the previous climb I had done from Montebruno. This climb to Rapallo was steeper to climb and to descend. It was narrower, twistier and the road surface was poor. I was quite relieved to be now sailing up this climb effortlessly!

Rapallo - not a bad view to wake up to

We talked about different elite bike races in the area, and Giovanni mentioned the Milan-Rapallo cycle race that takes place in late September - a race I hadn't realised existed. Apparently it is roughly 210km, so not quite as long as the Milan-Sanremo but equally challenging. Again, the riders face a few climbs near the finish though they are tougher than the Poggio and Cipressa ascents of the Classica di Primavera.

I am sure that riding this section over to Rapallo during the day would have given some beautiful views of the sea below. The area looked quite dramatic, with lots of rocky outcrops mixed with palm trees and other interesting vegetation - at least that's what I could only vaguely make out at 1.30am!

Finally, I arrived at my hotel in Rapallo, forever grateful to Giovanni, who made sure I got there safely. The receptionist at the hotel was pleased and quite relieved to see me. "We knew you would arrive." (which probably meant they'd privately been worried about what had happened to me!)

I was pleased to see my bed, and the room looked very comfortable - exactly what I needed. From what I saw of Rapallo at almost 2 o'clock in the morning the place had a Riviera feel about it. I went to bed, looking forward to what I would see in the morning - but not without texting Higg to let him know I had reached my destination safely. My long Saturday was finally over!

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed my ride, but as you have probably gathered, it was a little bit long! I made a few mistakes in the mapping out of my ride. I did not have a GPS and I had not researched the route properly beforehand. I completely miscalculated the distance - which was almost 210km - and the amount of climbing, which was God knows how many metres! My lack of fitness had not helped either.

Thankfully, I had set out with a back-up pack in case of the unexpected (as I usually do). The fact that I did this ride on a sunny day in September when the days were still reasonably long meant that conditions were not too miserable!

Finally, the people I talked to along the way were very helpful, friendly and kind. That made all the difference to this trip.

I would not set out to go through these inconveniences again, and maybe I should put a "don't try this at home label". However, when I look back at it I think it was quite an interesting and somewhat fulfilling adventure. It doesn't do much harm to test yourself sometimes. And I did not come out too badly in the end. Though next time, I think I will do some Salsa dancing in Cicagna!


Related posts
Milan to Rapallo - The Long Saturday - Part 1

Milan to Rapallo - The Long Saturdaay - Part 2

Milan to Rapallo - The Long Saturday - Part 3