{"id":378178,"date":"2025-12-29T12:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378178\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:39:08","slug":"cyclo-cross-breakout-star-amandine-fouquenet-signs-for-pauwels-sauzen-after-late-battle-for-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378178\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclo-cross breakout star Amandine Fouquenet signs for Pauwels Sauzen after late battle for contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rising French cyclo-cross star Amandine Fouquenet<\/a> will ride for Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw in 2026 after a late battle for a contract, moving to one of the sport’s top teams after an impressive season so far.<\/p>\n

Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw team manager Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed the news to Sporza<\/a> over the weekend in Dendermonde<\/a>, where Fouquenet finished third.<\/p>\n

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Victim of the collapse of the Ark\u00e9a-B&B Hotels team<\/a>, Fouquenet was simultaneously having a breakthrough season and fighting to find a home for 2026 over the festive period of racing, after announcing in October that she didn’t have a contract lined up.<\/p>\n

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Following podiums in the first two rounds of the World Cup, she took the biggest win of her career at the Superprestige in Heusden-Zolder<\/a> on December 23, backed up with second at the World Cup in Gavere<\/a> on Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

Even after Gavere, she said in her post-race interview that she did not yet have a contract, adding “I certainly hope [recent results] strengthens the teams’ confidence in choosing me”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clearly her efforts and successes have not gone unnoticed, though, and after a lengthy wait, she has a home at Pauwels Sauzen in 2026. She’ll swap jerseys after the New Year \u2013 possibly debuting for the Belgian team at the GP Sven Nys on January 1 \u2013 and will ride alongside the likes of Michael Vanthourenout, Eli Iserbyt and Leonie Bentveld.<\/p>\n

“We believe in her,” Mettepenningen told Sporza. “She’s motivated and even wants to move to Flanders for six months a year to race here.<\/p>\n

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“She has a lot of potential; we just need to work on her technique. But I think we can write a great story with her.”<\/p>\n

Though it took until the final weekend of December for Fouquenet to sign a contract, it wasn’t for lack of interest, Mettepenningen said, with his team winning a battle to secure her signature.<\/p>\n

“Many teams had their eyes on her,” he said. “But we absolutely needed someone to compete alongside Leonie Bentveld week after week at the top of women’s cyclo-cross.”<\/p>\n

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Bentveld, the team’s other top female cyclo-cross rider, rides on the road with AG Insurance-Soudal<\/a> during the summer, and Pauwels Sauzen said they are “looking into whether that’s also possible” for Fouquenet.<\/p>\n

As well as being good news for Fouquenet, the arrival of the French rider offers a big boost to the Belgian team, who are currently without their star rider Eli Iserbyt<\/a> who is dealing with a long-term iliac artery problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, who used to battle with riders like Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock, is yet to start his 2025\/26 campaign, and it’s unlikely he will race at all this winter, with no return or even improvement in sight.<\/p>\n

Mettepingen said “there’s little change in Eli’s situation”, and many have speculated that early retirement could even be on the cards.<\/p>\n

“Let’s hope Eli finds the courage to make the miracle happen and that everything works out. But it’s going to be a difficult story.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising French cyclo-cross star Amandine Fouquenet will ride for Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw in 2026 after a late battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-378178","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\/378178","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=378178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}