Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Katie Compton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | KFC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Wilmington, United States | December 3, 1978|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 135 lb (61 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | KFC Racing presented by Trek Bikes, Knight Composites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | Cyclo-cross, Track & MTB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Professional team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2006-2022 | KFC Racing p/b Trek Bikes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Major wins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
15x USA Cyclocross Champion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Katie Compton (born December 3, 1978) is an American former bicycle racer. She specialized in cyclo-cross racing and is a 15-time national champion. [1] Compton formerly piloted a tandem with a blind partner in Paralympic events.
She has won the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships Elite Women's title in an unbroken 15- win streak every season from 2004 to 2018. [2] Since she took part in Paralympic events she can not enter any bicycle races which award UCI points. Since she was unable to take part in major races before the National Championship, her win was a surprise to other racers, fans and journalists, ending her Paralympic career under UCI regulations.
In 2007, she became the first American woman to podium in the Cyclo-cross World Championships (held in the Cyclo-cross capital of the world that year—Belgium) [3] where she won silver between a French duo composed of Maryline Salvetat (who took the gold) and Laurence Leboucher (who won the bronze). In the 2007–2008 season she began racing professionally in UCI races as she no longer had her Paralympic obligations. In the beginning of the season she routinely has won the elite women's races in the US and on November 11, in only her third ever, she won her first World Cup Race in Pijnacker, Netherlands. Compton won by a margin of 54 seconds ahead of race favorite Daphny van den Brand who had won the previous World Cup race in Kalmthout.
In Paralympic events she rides a tandem with a blind partner Karissa Whitsell. Compton, the sighted team member, pilots and pedals the tandem in the captain position while Whitsell rides in the rear, stoker, position on their tandem. They were dominant in the 2004 Games, winning medals in every event they entered and setting a world record in the 3 km pursuit event.
Compton has amassed twenty three World Cup wins and five medals at the Cyclocross World Championships, and 130+ UCI wins, making Compton the most successful US Cyclocross athlete male or female in the sport.
In 2012, Compton signed a contract with the Trek Cyclocross Collective. Compton has worked closely with Trek testing and developing geometry she designed for the successful Trek Crockett and Boone cyclocross models.
In 2014 Compton rides for the Trek Factory Racing Team.
In 2014 Compton won her 100th UCI race after winning the Valkenburg World Cup in The Netherlands.
In 2016 Trek removed Compton off Trek Factory Racing support. Compton went on to form her own team, "KFC Racing" with sponsors including Trek Bikes, Knight Composites and Panache Clothing. Compton resumed her winning ways for the 2016-17 cyclocross season winning her first race at the Trek CXC Cup in Waterloo, Wisconsin.
In 2018 Compton became the first non-European to win the DVV Trofee overall.
In 2018 Compton won the silver medal at the World Championships in Valkenburg, NL in a thrilling battle with Sanne Cant. [4]
On August 11, 2021, it was announced that Compton had tested positive for an anabolic agent in September 2020 and had accepted a four-year ban as a consequence. The level was non-performance enhancing. Compton was notified five months after the test and was unable to trace the source of the contamination. As a bio-passport athlete, any level whether performance enhancing or not results in a positive test. Compton attempted to rescind her acceptance of the ban a week after accepting the ban due to poor legal advice but USADA refused to allow her to defend herself. [5]
Bart Wellens is a Belgian former professional cyclo-cross and road cyclist. He now works as the team manager of UCI Cyclo-cross Team 777.
Richard Marinus Anthonius Groenendaal is a Dutch former professional cyclo-cross cyclist. Groenendaal won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2000 and the overall titles in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup 1997–1998, 2000–2001 and 2003–2004 and in the Cyclo-cross Superprestige in 1997–1998 and 2000–2001.
Erwin Vervecken is a Belgian former professional cyclist specializing in cyclo-cross. Vervecken was a professional cyclist for 16 seasons (1995–2010) and has been working since his retirement as an external sportive consultant for sport marketing company Golazo, where he helps organize cyclocross and mountain bike races and does the coordination of the UCI Gran Fondo World Series.
Niels Albert is a former professional cyclo-cross racing cyclist who currently resides in Tremelo. He became World Champion twice, in 2009 and 2012.
Sanne Cant is a Belgian racing cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team IKO–Crelan, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck. Cant's cousin Loes Sels is also a professional cyclist.
Lars Anthonius Johannes Boom is a professional cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing cyclist from the Netherlands. He has also competed professionally in road racing, having raced between 2004 and 2019.
Kateřina Nash is a Czech cross-country skier and cyclist who competed from 1994 to 2003 in skiing and is still active in cycling for the Clif Pro Team. Competing in two Winter Olympics, she finished sixth in the 4 × 5 km relay at Nagano in 1998 and had her best individual finish of 20th in the 15 km event in Salt Lake City in 2002.
Kevin Pauwels is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2019 for the Fidea and Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal teams. Pauwels retired on 24 February 2019 after winning the Sluitingsprijs Oostmalle.
Ben Berden is a Belgian professional racing cyclist specializing in cyclocross. Berden was caught for doping in January 2005, immediately admitted to it, and was ultimately banned from the sport for 15 months.
Lars van der Haar is a Dutch professional cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Baloise–Trek Lions.
Lucinda Brand is a Dutch racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek in road racing, and UCI Cyclo-cross Pro Team Baloise–Trek Lions in cyclo-cross. After four years with Rabo–Liv, in August 2016 Team Sunweb announced that Brand had signed a two-year deal with the team, with a role as a team leader, road captain and as part of the team's sprint train. In 2023, Brand collaborated with fellow professional cyclist Maghalie Rochette to create the cycling-focused podcast Dirty Talks.
Laurens Sweeck is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Alpecin–Deceuninck Development Team for road racing and Crelan–Fristads for cyclo-cross. He represented his nation in the men's elite event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder.
Eli Iserbyt is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal. As a junior, he won the silver medal at the 2015 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. He won the gold medal in the men's under-23 event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder and took another gold in the under-23 race at the 2017 UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships in Tábor. In 2018 he won another gold medal in the men's under-23 event at the World Championships in Valkenburg.
Adam Ťoupalík is a Czech cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam TDT–Unibet Cycling Team. He won the silver medal in the men's under-23 event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder, being beaten in the sprint by Eli Iserbyt.
Thijs Aerts is a Belgian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Wanty–ReUz–Technord. He competed in the men's under-23 event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder. His brother Toon is also a professional cyclist.
Annemarie Worst is a Dutch cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team 777, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck. She became world under-23 cyclo-cross champion in 2017.
Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado is a Dominican-born Dutch cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team Alpecin–Deceuninck, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck. In 2018, she won the gold medal in the Under-23 race at the UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships in Rosmalen. She repeated this feat in 2019. On 1 February 2020 she became world champion in the elite category at the 2020 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Thibau Nys is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Lidl–Trek on the road and for UCI Cyclo-cross team Baloise–Trek Lions in cyclo-cross. Nys is the son of Sven Nys, one of the most successful cyclo-cross riders of all time.
Fem van Empel is a Dutch professional racing cyclist. In January 2021, she won the women's under-23 race at the 2021 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. During the 2022–2023 season she won the women's elite race at the World Championships and the European Cyclo-cross Championships. On 22 January 2023, she secured overall victory at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup (2022–23). On 16 Feb 2023 at Brussels, Fem clinched the X20 Badkamers Trophy. The previous week, her first race in the World Champions jersey, competing in the X20 Badkamers at Lille she finished 1st doing a "Pidcock" across the finish line. In the cyclo cross season 2023 to 2024 Fem Van Empel was first in her first eleven races. Having finished the previous season with five successive firsts, it brought her run of first places in top level Cyclocross to sixteen. Fem Van Empel retained her UCI World Championship at Tábor on 3 February 2024. One respected commentator noted he had "run out of superlatives to describe Fems phenomenal talent", calling her "The Golden Girl of Cyclocross". Another described her performance as " pretty much perfection" . "Velo" noted that "her 18th victory out of what has been a 20-race season" is "a staggering success rate " .Fem completed her 2023 to 2024 season with a win to take the X²O Badkamers Trophy at Lille on 11 Feb. This took her number of wins for the season to 19 from 21 races. At the end of season 2023 to 2024 Fems' career total number of Elite level Cyclo-cross race wins was 37.