{"id":347896,"date":"2025-12-14T17:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347896\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T17:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:43:14","slug":"i-hope-the-phone-will-ring-namur-world-cup-podium-boosts-2026-contract-search-for-amandine-fouquenet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347896\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I hope the phone will ring’ – Namur World Cup podium boosts 2026 contract search for Amandine Fouquenet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amandine Fouquenet (Ark\u00e9a – B&B Hotels Women) sent a message to potential road and cyclo-cross sponsors for 2026 with a third placed finish in the World Cup at Namur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The French national cyclocross champion backed up her second place at the Flamanville World Cup<\/a> earlier this season with another international podium at the notorious Belgian course.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is still without a contract for 2026 following Ark\u00e9a – B&B Hotels Women’s collapse, after the team failed to find a sponsor<\/a> for the forthcoming season.<\/p>\n

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Fouquenet showed her undoubted talent on Sunday with a blistering start up the cobbled climb to the Citadelle in Namur and had a clear lead after the opening minute.<\/p>\n

The experienced Lucinda Brand (Baloise Glowi Lions) eventually came through to take victory, while European champion Aniek Van Alphen (Seven Racing) finished runner-up.<\/p>\n

Just one minute behind the winner, Fouquenet overcame the challenge of Puck Pieterse (Fenix \u2013 Deceuninck) to round off the podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very strong start, but I may have gone a little too deep,\u201d said Fouquenet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI had to recover a bit, but Aniek [Van Alphen] and Lucinda [Brand] were very strong. I’m happy with third place. For now, it’s my best season, with two podiums in the World Cup.”<\/p>\n

Brand also complimented the French rider on an “unexpected” podium finish following her blistering start.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe (Fouquenet) always has an amazing start,\u201d said Brand. \u201cShe did an amazing ride, I didn\u2019t expect it, and that\u2019s really good for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fouquenet started her \u2018cross season with third in the Superprestige at Ruddervoorde and fifth-place at the European Championships in Middelkerke.<\/p>\n

A career-best runner-up place at the Flamanville round of the World Cup added extra attention to the French youngster.<\/p>\n

She has spent the last two weeks on a training camp in Calpe before returning to the cyclocross field in Namur.<\/p>\n

Despite her career-best results on the international stage, the French national champion is yet to find a team for 2026.<\/p>\n

“She was in advanced contact with a team but it fell through,” her coach L\u00e9onard Cosnier told Le Telegramme.<\/a> “It’s quite incredible that a girl of this level has still not found a team at this time of year. If Amandine manages to sign in the coming days, I’m sure she’ll bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fouquenet won a second French national elite cyclocross title last season and broke into the World Cup top-10. However, that followed a busy road season which culminated in completing the Tour de France Femmes.<\/p>\n

This year her road campaign with Ark\u00e9a – B&B Hotels Women has mirrored that of a traditional cyclocross rider and included the Spring Classics and a 16th place finish in the The Morbihan Classic in France.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is yet to finish outside the top-10 this \u2018cross season and has finished on four podiums \u2013 including a convincing win at the Coupe de France series race in Quelneuc.<\/p>\n

Fouquenet feels that she is reaching the peak of her career and has focused on the technical elements of cyclocross more this season.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Direct Velo<\/a> earlier in the season she said: \u201cI haven’t had any slumps and I hope I don’t.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m trying to put all the chances on my side, it’s not easy because I don’t have anything for next year. For the moment it’s not easy mentally but physically I’m ready and want to show that I’m a fighter for a team.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to Ark\u00e9a who supports me with the bikes made available and my partners Legendre and M’Gys who support me for the cross season, but I really hope to find a cross and also road team for 2026.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to be 25 next year and I’m coming of age. Before, I already wanted to do things well, but this year I’ve taken a step forward mentally: I really pay attention to nutrition, sleep, recovery.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other years I didn’t train too technically, but at the beginning of the season I told myself that I really had to stop losing seconds here and there that cost me in the end.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIn cyclocross, when you manage not to make a lot of effort and save some for the last [lap], it’s always good too.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teams are almost already full, and we know that it’s difficult in terms of budget everywhere, but I’m not giving up and I hope the phone will ring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amandine Fouquenet (Ark\u00e9a – B&B Hotels Women) sent a message to potential road and cyclo-cross sponsors for 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-347896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}