{"id":71880,"date":"2025-08-16T20:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T20:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/71880\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T20:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T20:16:07","slug":"impressive-debut-at-tour-de-lain-nets-pro-contract-with-cofidis-for-stagiaire-jamie-meehan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/71880\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressive debut at Tour de l\u2019Ain nets pro contract with Cofidis for stagiaire Jamie Meehan"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a strong third place on stage 2 of Tour de l\u2019Ain<\/a>, his first race as a stagiaire<\/a> with Cofidis<\/a>, Jamie Meehan signed a three-year professional contract with the French WorldTour team.<\/p>\n

The Irish U23 road race champion claimed his first podium in his first race with Cofidis, winning the sprint from a seven-rider chase group in the Jura mountains. He ultimately finished 14th overall and third in the best young rider classification at the end of the three-day stage race.<\/p>\n

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The Cofidis team said in a release that \u201cthese exceptional performances go hand in hand with his ability to adapt very quickly to the team’s operations. In the wake of this, the sporting management, led by C\u00e9dric Vasseur, decided to take a rare step: offering him a contract for the next three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis contract is truly incredible. For me, it’s a dream come true. I’ve trained for so long, I’ve fought for years to be able to experience this moment. Obviously, it’s something very powerful. The Tour de l’Ain will remain in my memory for a long time. I really enjoyed discovering the team, integrating into it, and I really wanted to learn. I didn’t think I could make a podium in a stage.\u201d Meehan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut by managing to stay in the wheel of the best, I told myself that maybe there was a chance to play! I consider myself a climber, I like tough races, demanding climbs. With Cofidis, I want to continue learning, and I will do everything to help my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

After joining the AVC Aix-en-Provence Dole continental team in 2025, Meehan soloed to victory at the French Cup race, Roger Walkowiak Trophy, and claimed second on a stage of the Alpes Isere Tour, and two third places at the Tour du Pi\u00e9mont Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9en Challenge 1 and Challenge 2. He also finished second overall and claimed the best young rider jersey at the five-day R\u00e1s Tailteann.<\/p>\n

Meehan joins many other riders, such as Christophe Laporte, Anthony P\u00e9rez and more recently Oliver Knight and Cl\u00e9ment Izquierdo, who have graduated from AVC Aix-en-Provence to Cofidis in the past.<\/p>\n

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Meehan will be at the start of La Polynormande on Sunday. He will then race the Tour de l\u2019Avenir as part of the Irish National team before returning to race with Cofidis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a strong third place on stage 2 of Tour de l\u2019Ain, his first race as a stagiaire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-71880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}