BIENVENUE VICTOIRE! BERTEAU JOINS CANYON//SRAM

Adding another dose of fresh firepower to the squad, CANYON//SRAM is pleased to announce the signing of former French road race national champion Victoire Berteau until 2028.

“I am very excited to soon be racing for CANYON//SRAM. I have big ambitions and am full of enthusiasm. It is also a source of great pride to be part of one of the best teams in the world,” Victoire enthused.

The 26-year-old Frenchwoman possesses a broad and formidable skillset, with success across both road and track, but up until now, much of it has unfolded within the familiar confines of her home country’s cycling scene.

Victoire has represented French team Cofidis on the road since 2022, while also donning the blue, white and red at track championship events and competing in both disciplines at the 2024 Paris Olympics. While joining CANYON//SRAM marks a considerable step into new territory, her first impressions suggest that she is already feeling at home:

“The first meeting with CANYON//SRAM felt completely natural. I felt like I belonged and that I was appreciated for the person I am. I really valued the communication between the team and me.”

Victoire’s road palmarès is headlined by her first road racing win – the 2023 French National Championships, no less. The following season, she enjoyed her strongest Classics campaign to date, securing three UCI podium finishes, placing fifth at the WorldTour Ronde van Drenthe and taking eighth at the much-worshipped Paris-Roubaix.

There will be no shortage of Roubaix enthusiasts on the CANYON//SRAM roster in 2027, and for Victoire, the allure of the cobbled Monument is easy to understand. Hailing from the far north of France, just south of the Belgian border near Lille, Roubaix is practically on her doorstep. So, when asked about what she would most like to achieve in the next few years, her answer was hardly surprising:

“Lifting the Roubaix cobblestone trophy on the podium in the middle of the velodrome.”

Speaking of tracks, Victoire has collected four World Championship medals and eight European podiums across five events. An elite gold remains elusive, but a junior Madison rainbow jersey from 2018 should keep her hungry for more.

Fast-forward to 2026, and after a quieter start to the season, Victoire added two notable results to her name: a debut overall victory at the Volta a Portugal Feminina and a maiden professional stage win at the Premondiale Giro Toscana – her first race victory since claiming the coveted French national title.

All in all, Victoire’s combination of a strong sprint and an ability to thrive in classics as well as stage races offers valuable versatility, as CANYON//SRAM Director of Sport Rolf Aldag explains:

“She’s certainly a little bit of a ‘swiss-army knife’ – not just a singular type of rider, but one who can ‘fix’ a lot of situations. Her capabilities are not only in flat or tough finales, but also in hillier races. You can see that from her results.

What also makes her fit really well into our new roster is that we’ll have a strong focus on the cobbled classics, where many riders will have big ambitions. So, with Victoire as well, we’re strengthening that area a lot more.”

According to Rolf, Victoire brings immense potential on the bike, alongside value that extends well beyond it.

“Victoire is coming from environments where she’s been for quite a while. This is actually very, very helpful because with this new start is a fresh mindset; she’s going to ask us questions, which will keep us sharp. She’ll want to improve and explore the resources that we have, so it’s exciting for us as a team to bring somebody on-board who is on one side established, but on the other can still accomplish a lot. 

I believe that one of the biggest opportunities you can have as a rider is really breaking out of what’s familiar and getting into something more unknown. She’s coming into a very international team with a language change, and a way of working that’s going to be quite different. I think that always prompts people to rethink what they’ve done so far, and to open themselves up for positive change.

There’s also the not-so-small matter of a certain home-race advantage.

“Victoire doesn’t live very far from Roubaix which I believe is a bit of a dream race for her, so that gives a key opportunity for her and for us as well. Equipment testing, feedback, course know-how and general knowledge are all so crucial for this race, and I think we can come together really nicely for it.”

Victoire’s own description of her perfect road race leaves little doubt about where her ambitions lie:

“It’s quite simple and classic, but the race of my dreams – the perfect race for me – is Paris-Roubaix. You have to be a complete rider, not just physically, but also and above all, mentally. Whoever wants it the most will be the one to win it.”

Away from her goals on the pavé, Victoire has a couple of very different ideas about how her future could have looked:

“I’d probably be doing far too many things. My dream is to be a sports teacher, so I can pass on the values ​​of high-level performance and sacrifice, and encourage students to take a risk by giving things a try. Otherwise, I would have opened my own restaurant in the north of France.”

For now, though, her focus is firmly on the bike, soon to be in CANYON//SRAM colours. Victoire becomes the team’s second-ever French rider, and has given Rolf plenty of reason for optimism:

“All in all, we have another very strong and reliable rider with Victoire on-board, who can both score results for herself and support the team in the bigger picture. We can be very confident about our spring campaign,” he concluded.