'A huge step-up and a lot to learn' – Kate Courtney swiftly adapting to WorldTour racing with FDJ United-Suez at the Tour of Britain Women

Kate Courtney’s road cycling adventure continues at this week’s Tour of Britain Women, where the American racer is getting her first taste of Women’s WorldTour racing at the five-day event.

She’s already a multidisciplinary star, with two mountain bike world titles and several major gravel wins on her palmarès. Earlier this summer, she added the American road title to that list of triumphs before joining FDJ United-SUEZ in early July.

Courtney soon got to work with the French squad, taking on a pair of French one-dayers, so how is she getting on and settling into her new surroundings?

“It’s a huge step-up and a lot to learn, but there’s no better place to do it,” Courtney told Cycling News in Clitheroe ahead of stage 2 of the Tour of Britain Women.

“It was great! I think it was definitely a hectic day in the bunch,” she said of the opener in Cockermouth, which saw FDJ place three riders in the front group.

“We had a lot of wind and some tight roads, so it’s a really good place to learn and work on positioning.”

The worlds of off-road and road racing are very different in several ways, so making a switch from one to the other must take some adjusting. So far, Courtney has shown little sign of it being a tough one, however.

Alongside her US road title, she finished top 15 at the French races, La Périgord Ladies and Le Picto en Nouvelle-Aquitane, and has finished among the top 30 in the opening days in Britain.

Beyond the racing, there are new processes and people to get used to, with a Women's WorldTour setup such as FDJ a much larger team structure than those seen in mountain biking and gravel racing.

"I think in mountain biking, you have only like two or three riders as women in a team, and she was really the big leader in the last few years," team directeur sportif Lars Boom told Cycling News at the stage 2 finish in Blackpool.

"Of course, I hope she will grow to be one as well in our team, but for sure she's not a beginner rider who starts riding in our team. She has a lot of knowledge about training, how she needs to prepare herself for stuff like that.

"So you really feel that she's a professional, and then it comes by learning and doing things in the race, and just getting the hours in on the bike, I think."

Boom said that learning to ride in a large peloton is another challenge for multidisciplinarians like Courtney to meet. He said, however, that "she's doing well" in the "quite hectic" nature of the peloton in Britain as she races in support of reigning champion Ally Wollaston.

"Every day she's well-positioned and doing a good job," he said, while Courtney described her integration experience as a "unique" one.

"The team is amazing, and it's been really unique to get to start racing as a team and playing team tactics. I'm excited to see what we can do."

So what can be expected of 30-year-old Courtney, already impressing in her first few outings on the road? Boom hinted at future expectations of big results, though now is the time for learning and adapting.

"For the moment we don't expect too much. Not 'not too much' – I mean we expect a lot, but we let her do her thing. She can make mistakes; she just needs to do what her instincts tell her to do in the race, and then it will be fine," Boom said.

"This will not be her last race of the team, but the last race before Worlds normally, so she will go back after this and do a good training block and prepare for Worlds. And then maybe she comes back to race some races in Europe."

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