Fem van Empel returns to cycling with FDJ United-SUEZ after career pause

Fem van Empel is returning to professional cycling after signing for FDJ United-SUEZ, opening a new chapter in her career following an extended break from the sport.

The French team announced on Thursday that the 24-year-old Dutch rider would join its roster with immediate effect. It remains unclear when Van Empel will make her competitive return, or what her programme will look like across road racing and cyclocross.

“I am ready for a new adventure and very excited about starting again from scratch,” Van Empel said in a press release by the team. “Above all, I want to enjoy it a lot.”

The move comes less than a year after Van Empel stepped away from professional cycling at the end of 2025, having struggled to rediscover the motivation and enjoyment that had accompanied the first years of her career.

Her final appearance of that season came at the Koppenbergcross on November 1, where she abandoned after the opening lap. Van Empel had won the race in each of the previous three editions.

Several weeks later, she and Visma | Lease a Bike agreed to end her contract from January 1, with Van Empel announcing that she would put her cycling career on hold for an indefinite period.

“At the moment, both the motivation and the enjoyment I have had in cycling for years are missing,” she said at the time. “For now, this is the best choice.”

Her decision followed a difficult 2025 in which Van Empel had already taken time away from racing to focus on her mental wellbeing and physical complaints. She returned for the cyclocross season later that year and won races in Woerden and Heerderstrand, but ultimately decided another break was necessary.

Now, FDJ United-SUEZ will provide the setting for her return.

General manager Stephen Delcourt stressed that the immediate priority would not be results, but creating an environment in which Van Empel can rediscover the enjoyment of racing.

“Fem joining us means a lot,” Delcourt said. “We all know the immense champion she is and everything she has already achieved. But today, our priority above all is to support her so that she can rediscover the pleasure of riding, her smile and the freedom to express herself fully.”

Despite her age, Van Empel already owns one of the most decorated records in modern women’s cyclocross.

She won three consecutive elite cyclocross world titles between 2023 and 2025, having previously become under 23 world champion in 2021. She also claimed three successive elite European titles and won the overall UCI Cyclocross World Cup during the 2022 and 2023 season.

Her 50th career victory came in October 2025.

Van Empel has also shown considerable potential on the road. She finished eighth at La Flèche Wallonne in 2024 and placed 11th overall at the Giro d’Italia Women in 2023.

Her arrival also fits into FDJ United-SUEZ’s growing ambitions beyond road racing.

The team has recruited riders including Anja Grossmann and mountain biker Kate Courtney as it looks to build what Delcourt described as a genuinely multidisciplinary project.

“With Fem, as with Anja Grossmann and Kate Courtney, we are strengthening our ambition to build a true multidisciplinary project, capable of welcoming great champions with their own journeys, personalities and ambitions,” he said.

“Our role goes beyond performance. We want to create an environment in which our athletes can progress, feel supported and thrive, both on and off the bike.”

For Van Empel, that means her return will initially be defined less by where she races or what she wins than by whether she can rediscover the feeling that disappeared during the final months of her previous spell in the sport.

“More than anything, we cannot wait to see Fem smiling on her bike again, enjoying competition and flourishing fully as an athlete and as a woman,” Delcourt said.

“The rest will come naturally.”