Fem Van Empel

Van Empel grew up in Sint-Michielsgestel in North Brabant and started out as a footballer, playing in the boys' team at the local club. She followed her father into cycling, riding her first road race at Mierlo-Hout in July 2010, and kept both sports running until November 2019, when she gave up football to ride full time.

She won the under-23 world title at Ostend in January 2021 and took bronze in the same race a year later at Fayetteville, behind Puck Pieterse and Shirin van Anrooij. The following winter, 2022-23, brought seven World Cup wins and the overall series, the European title, and the world championship at Hoogerheide, where she finished thirty-nine seconds clear of Pieterse.

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado took the World Cup the next season, but van Empel kept the rainbow jersey at Tábor in February 2024, a minute and twenty seconds ahead of Lucinda Brand. She was absent from the Antwerp and Dublin rounds in late 2024 and finished the 2024-25 World Cup second to Brand, winning at Gavere, Besançon and Benidorm. She took the European title at Pontevedra, and won the world championship again at Liévin in February 2025.

She rode Strade Bianche in 2025 and crashed at Trofeo Alfredo Binda in March after a collision caused by a spectator. Days later she stopped racing, citing her mental health. The break ran six months. She came back at La Choralis Fourmies in September 2025.

Cyclo-cross wins at Woerden and Heerderstrand followed that October, but illness kept her out of the European Championships in November and she did not defend the title. In December 2025 she left Visma-Lease a Bike and put her career on hold. She did not ride the 2025-26 World Cup or the world championships at Hulst.