{"id":386853,"date":"2026-01-04T03:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386853\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T03:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:24:10","slug":"carrier-earns-first-european-podium-of-the-season-at-superprestige-gullegem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386853\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrier earns first European podium of the season at Superprestige Gullegem"},"content":{"rendered":"

She completed five races in Europe this season and earned two top-10\u2019s, but on Saturday Canada\u2019s Rafaelle Carrier earned her best result over the pond with third place. The Superprestige series entered its latter stages Saturday at the seventh round in windy Gullegem, Belgium. A tight GC scrap between Aniek van Alphen, Inge van der Heijden and new Pauwels Sauzen member Amandine Fouquenet got tighter as Fouquenet won and Carrier nipped third from van Alphen.<\/p>\n

Early in Saturday\u2019s program, Canadian Alexa Haviland was runner-up in the Junior women\u2019s race, Elly Moore came fourth and Clare Hauber placed eighth. <\/p>\n

The Overall Competition<\/p>\n

Van Alphen stumbled into a much better position after Puck Pieterse\u2019s first win of the season at the Diegem round<\/a> due to Inge van der Heijden\u2019s mass start crash and Fouquenet\u2019s absence. Over those two, van Alphen\u2019s leads were 9 and 10 points respectively. <\/p>\n

Carrier had a front row start on Saturday, but it was Fouquenet and an American claiming the hole shot on Lap 1. Van Alphen and Zoe Backstedt latched onto Fouquenet. Jolanda Neff and Marion Norbert Riberolle were also part of a small group with a slight gap by the line. Carrier was eighth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fouquenet, in her new Pauwels Sauzen French champions jersey, leads the string.<\/p>\n

Van Alphen got caught up on a Backstedt\u2019s bike at the start of Lap 2. Carrier bridged over. Fouquenet and Neff tried to get clear. Carrier bunnyhopped the planks. Fouquenet finally got away, four seconds ahead of van Alphen by the line. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fouquenet had her ears pinned back on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Carrier was up to fourth on Lap 3 of 6. Van Alphen and Backstedt took new bikes. Carrier led the chase of Fouquenet. Then van Alphen pulled Riberolle over to Fouquenet. Carrier and Backstedt were five seconds back at the midpoint of the race. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Carrier leads the chase on Lap 3.<\/p>\n

Riberolle seized the reins at the start of Lap 4. Carrier was fourth into the sand and put real estate between herself and Backstedt. Fouquenet insisted on the front. Van Alphen was a little back of Fouquenet and Riberolle by the time they all went into the penultimate lap. Carrier was +0:08. <\/p>\n

By clearing the sand on the penultimate lap, the French champion pried out a gap on Riberolle. Carrier seemingly didn\u2019t have to worry about Backstedt behind, and she concentrated on van Alphen ahead. Light snow drifted. <\/p>\n

The dogged pursuit continued on the bell lap. Riberolle didn\u2019t make any inroads into Fouquenet\u2019s lead. In the final 250 metres, Carrier caught and dispatched van Alphen for the final step.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The gaps between Riberolle, van Alphen and Carrier in the bell lap.<\/p>\n

The final round is February 7 at Middelkerke. Van Alphen leads Fouquenet by seven points.<\/p>\n

2025-2026 Superprestige, Round 7, Gullegem
1) Amandine Fouquenet (France\/Pauwels Sauzen) 48:00
2) Marion Norbert Riberolle (Belgium\/Crelan-Corendon) +0:09
3) Rafaelle Carrier (Canada) +0:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She completed five races in Europe this season and earned two top-10\u2019s, but on Saturday Canada\u2019s Rafaelle Carrier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[161406,164313,49,48,164314,635,164315,151485,82,11588],"class_list":["post-386853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2025-2026-superprestige-series","tag-alexa-haviland","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-clare-hauber","tag-cycling","tag-elly-moore","tag-rafaelle-carrier","tag-sports","tag-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}