The three-time UCI Enduro World Cup overall champion Isabeau Courdurier has competed as a full-time professional racer for the last time, signing off with a win in the first-ever UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Championships. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman has been at the top of the sport since its very start but will be taking a step back in 2025 to focus on herself and starting a family.

Isabeau Courdurier (Lapierre Zipp Collective) has finished her full-time professional racing career as the best rider in the world, claiming the first-ever UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Championship to win everything there is to in the Gravity format.

The 30-year-old Frenchwoman announced at the start of the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series season that this would be her last, although she ruled out retirement completely.

Speaking in Finale Outdoor Region ahead of the first UCI Enduro World Cup of the season, she said: “It’s my last season as a full-time professional racer. I’m not going to retire soon but I’m having a break next season because I’d like to get more time for me and to have a family.”

The three-time UCI Enduro World Cup overall champion is one of the greats of the sport, and is tied for most championship wins alongside Cecile Ravanel (France) and Tracy Moseley (Great-Britain).

She was on course to become the all-time best but was overhauled on the very last day of racing – Harriet Harnden (Trek Factory Racing Gravity) winning the title by 21 points to stop any chances of a fairytale ending. But just one week later, she put any disappointment behind her to win the rainbow jersey in the Italian Dolomites.

From her first top 10 finish through to her final performance in Val di Fassa, Trentino, here are the highlights of Courdurier’s stunning career.

MAKING THE SWITCH

Courdurier grew up on the outskirts of Marseille, in Gardanne, France, and was competing in cross-country races from the age of five. After struggling with balancing her studies and training, she made the switch to Enduro aged 16 and didn’t look back. When the Enduro World Series (EWS) kicked off in 2013, she was one of its first riders, competing in the debut race in Punta Ala, Italy – where she finished 10th – before securing her first podium with fifth in the second race in Val d’Allos, France. A fourth in Val d’Isère, France, was her best result of the season on the international stage, and a sign of things to come.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY

By 2015, Courdurier was competing at every round of the EWS and travelling the world with her enduro bike in tow. In Whistler, British Columbia, Canada she scored her first top-three finish, sharing the podium with two icons of the sport – Tracy Moseley and Cecile Ravanel. She followed this up in the following round with another third in Zona Zero Ainsa-Sobrarbe, Spain. Her consistency was enough to secure her fourth in the overall championship, and it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before her first win.

THE BREAKTHROUGH

Despite being in the top three at every round in 2016 and securing second in the overall, the top spot alluded Courdurier. That was until 2017, where she finally got the better of Ravanel in Blue Derby, Tasmania, Australia, winning five out of seven stages to take her first EWS win. Her compatriot and rival would resume her dominance for the rest of the series and into 2018, recording near-perfect seasons, but it was a sign that Courdurier would be there pushing her every step of the way.

PERFECT SEASON

After six years of hard work and graft, everything aligned for Courdurier in 2019. With Ravanel ruled out before the first round with an ultimately career-ending injury in training, no one could stand in Courdurier’s way, and the Frenchwoman seized the initiative, winning all eight EWS rounds to complete a perfect season. It wasn’t just individual honours either – Courdurier winning the first-ever EWS Trophy of Nations title alongside teammates Melanie Pugin and Morgane Charre.

BACK-TO-BACK DOMINANCE

Cancellations and postponements caused by Covid robbed Courdurier of her momentum in 2020 and 2021, but when the full, uninterrupted season resumed in 2022, she got back to winning ways – first in EWS and then as part of the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series, launched in 2023 to unite all mountain bike’s major formats under a single brand for the first time. 

Over the two seasons and 15 races, she won eight contests, finished on the podium six times, with the only blot on her scorecard a seventh. Her dominance saw her win back-to-back series, taking her level with Moseley and Ravenel.

ROLLERCOASTER RIDE

Ahead of the first UCI Enduro World Cup of the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, Courdurier announced that it would be her last as a full-time professional, and in the next seven races, she had the chance to claim a record fourth series and the first-ever UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Championship. It didn’t get off to the greatest start – Harriet Harnden (Trek Factory Racing Gravity) showing in Finale Outdoor Region (Italy) that Courdurier would have her work cut out to finish as the greatest enduro rider of all time. Courdurier would win two UCI Enduro World Cup rounds and only finish off the podium once (ninth in Loudenvielle), but it wasn’t enough to beat the Brit – who claimed the series on the final stage of the final race.

Courdurier didn’t let the disappointment get to her though and was back on the top spot in arguably the biggest race of the season just one week later. The Frenchwoman dominated the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Championship from the off, winning the first two stages to build an unassailable lead in Val di Fassa, Trentino, with her compatriot Pugin the only rider who could get within a minute of her.