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How Aurélia Boulanger Is Becoming the Champion She Always Believed She Could Be
By Alex Bok
“At Kú Racing, we don’t buy champions. We build them.”
Sometimes, the biggest victories don’t happen on race day.
They happen on the mornings when nobody is watching. They happen after disappointment, after injury, after doubt. They happen when an athlete decides to keep believing—even when the results don’t yet show it.
Aurélia Boulanger’s journey is exactly that story.
It is the story of patience, resilience and a team that believed in potential long before the podiums arrived.
Back in 2021, Kú Cycle launched the Next Generation of Champions program.
The vision was simple but ambitious: identify talented age-group athletes, surround them with the right people, equipment and support, and help them become winning professionals.
Over the past five years the program has delivered more than 100 age-group victories, helped numerous athletes turn professional, and even contributed to producing an Ironman 70.3 World Champion.
More importantly, it has given young athletes something priceless: belief that their dream is possible.
Aurélia Boulanger is one of those dreams becoming reality.
The First Meeting
Our paths first crossed in May 2023 at Challenge Fréjus.
It was already a memorable day for Kú Racing as South African Magda Nieuwoudt claimed her first professional victory. Standing beside her on the podium was a young French athlete who finished second—Aurélia Boulanger.
A few months later she applied for the Kú Next Gen program through one of our French bike fitters.
In September 2023 she received her very first Kú TF1.
Neither of us knew then how important that moment would become.
More Than Just a Bike
Aurélia’s first race aboard her TF1 came at Challenge Vieux Boucau in October 2023.
But the race wasn’t the biggest moment that weekend.
For the first time she experienced what we call the Kú Family.
A barbecue after racing. Athletes encouraging each other. Coaches sharing knowledge. Professionals and age-group athletes learning together.
Triathlon is often described as an individual sport.
We see it differently.
Surround ambitious athletes with people who genuinely want them to succeed, and development accelerates. Confidence grows. Standards rise.
Success becomes a shared mission.
When planning Aurélia’s 2024 season, we resisted the temptation to chase the biggest races.
Instead, we focused on steady development through the Challenge Family circuit.
Step by step.
Race by race.
The results spoke for themselves.
Three victories in her first full professional season.
The foundations were being laid.
Every Champion Faces Setbacks
Then came 2025.
The season began with promise but quickly became one of the hardest periods of Aurélia’s career.
A DNF at the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships. Personal challenges away from racing. Confidence fading.
Professional sport has a habit of testing athletes just when they seem ready to fly.
Many people only see the podiums.
Very few see the emotional battles behind them.
After several conversations together, one decision changed everything.
Aurélia would join the Kú Racing training camp in Leysin, Switzerland.
Finding Herself Again
Nestled high in the Swiss Alps, Leysin is breathtaking.
It is also unforgiving.
The climbs are long.
The weather changes quickly.
Every training session demands something from you.
It became exactly what Aurélia needed.
Supported by coaches Jo Spindler and Emma Bilham, she rediscovered something even more important than fitness.
She rediscovered the joy of training.
She left Leysin stronger—not only physically, but mentally.
That renewed belief carried into October when she stood on the podium at Ironman 70.3 Portugal.
Soon after, she earned a two-year contract with the newly formed Kú Racing Team.
Kú Racing Training Camp in Leysin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPACp1uBvtM )
The Power of the Right Environment
Aurélia continued to embrace every opportunity.
She spent the winter of 2026 training in Gran Canaria alongside the Kú Racing squad, working relentlessly on the discipline that challenged her most—swimming.
Then in early April she attended the Kú Aero Camp in the Netherlands where she received her 2026 Kú Racing TF1 edition and further aero tuning from the Kú Tech Team.
The improvements were remarkable.
But the biggest gains came from living every day inside a high-performance environment.
It meant leaving home.
Stepping outside her comfort zone.
Learning from athletes chasing the same dream.
Kú Training Camp Coach Emma Bilham has watched that transformation firsthand.
“The mental strength it took for Aurélia to walk into our Leysin camp after months of personal and sporting struggles was already impressive. Since then I’ve watched her work incredibly hard. Her swimming has improved massively, her cycling is stronger than ever and her running is returning. But more inspiring than the physical improvements is the way she has approached every challenge.”
One Goal. One Dream.
At the beginning of 2026, Aurélia and the Kú Racing team set one clear objective.
Qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice.
A World Championship.
In France.
Her home country.
It wouldn’t be easy.
Qualification required a podium finish against some of the strongest professional fields in the world.
Brazil: Cruel Timing
The first opportunity came at Ironman 70.3 Curitiba.
Everything was unfolding perfectly.
She exited the water near the front.
She powered to the front on the bike.
Halfway through the ride she looked in complete control.
Then disaster struck.
A puncture.
Technical support arrived too late.
Race over.
Sometimes cycling can be brutally unfair.
Months of preparation disappeared in a matter of minutes.
Refusing to Panic
Many athletes would have let frustration take over.
Aurélia didn’t.
She stayed patient.
She kept trusting the process.
At Ironman 70.3 Valencia she produced the fastest bike split against one of the strongest professional fields of the year.
The reward?
Seventh place.
Still no World Championship qualification.
Again, she stayed calm.
Back home she raced and won the inaugural event organised by her local triathlon club in Nîmes.
Afterwards she shared a message that perfectly captured her mindset.
“We often spend a lot of time looking at results, rankings or goals to achieve. However, real wealth is also found in the journey, in the energy we put into moving forward every day, and in the enjoyment we find in doing it.”
Those words would soon become reality.
Canada Changes Everything
A few weeks later Aurélia travelled to Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant.
Everything clicked.
Her improved swim placed her in contention.
Her bike strength allowed her to ride clear of the field.
This time, the run held together beautifully.
She crossed the finish line not just as the winner—but as a World Championship qualifier.
Every setback.
Every difficult training session.
Every camp in Leysin and Gran Canaria.
Every conversation after disappointment.
It had all led to this moment.
Media Contact Kú Cycle:
Alex Bok
alex@ku-cycle.com
+31 (0) 683 033 920
About Kú Cycle
A Dutch based company with a mission to design bikes and performance solutions that will change the sport forever – the perfect fit between body and machine. We believe a rider’s position should be established independent of the bike and will therefore reposition bike fitting services from a post-purchase service to a pre-purchase service. A new production process (built-to-order) and a completely different sales model are introduced with a single objective: athlete performance delivered!
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