{"id":72134,"date":"2025-08-16T23:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/72134\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T23:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:16:09","slug":"why-cofidis-signed-this-irish-rider-after-only-one-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/72134\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Cofidis signed this Irish rider after only one race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a successful debut by stagiaire Jamie Meehan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cofidis\" title=\"Cofidis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cofidis<\/a> wasted no time and immediately locked the Irishman into a three-year deal. Last week, Meehan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/uijtdebroeks-encounters-unbeatable-prodhomme-after-beating-visma-lease-a-bike-colombier-will-bring-decision\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">finished third in a stage<\/a> at the Tour de l\u2019Ain, right behind Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike).<\/p>\n<p>Meehan, who recently finished sixth in the Giro della Valle d\u2019Aosta, got his first taste of WorldTour racing with Cofidis starting August 1st. OHe immediately finished second on day two, and ultimately ended the race 14th in the overall classification.<\/p>\n<p>That performance left such a strong impression that Cofidis didn\u2019t hesitate.<br \/>\n\u201cThe sporting directors, under the leadership of C\u00e9dric Vasseur, made a rare decision: to offer him a three-year contract. Jamie didn\u2019t hesitate long, he called it \u2018a dream come true,\u2019\u201d the French team shared <a href=\"https:\/\/www.equipecofidis.com\/fr\/actualites\/2025-08-15\/jamie-meehan-stagiaire-une-course-professionnel-chez-cofidis-dans-la-foulee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe continues the beautiful story between the AVC Aix club and the Cofidis team,\u201d the WorldTour squad added, referring to a pathway previously taken by riders like Christophe Laporte, Anthony P\u00e9rez, and more recently Oliver Knight and Cl\u00e9ment Izquierdo.<br \/>\n\u201cLike them, Jamie hopes to keep developing,\u201d said Cofidis, which will also have Meehan ride the upcoming Tour de l\u2019Avenir. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Meehan sees himself as a climber<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis contract is truly unbelievable. For me, it\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d said Meehan.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019ve trained for so long and fought for years to reach this moment. The Tour de l\u2019Ain is something I\u2019ll remember for a long time. I really enjoyed getting to know the team, integrating into the group, and learning from my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t think I could actually make it onto the podium in a stage,\u201d the Irishman added.<br \/>\n\u201cBut by staying on the wheels of the best, I told myself maybe there was a chance. I see myself as a climber. I love hard races, tough climbs,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cAt Cofidis, I want to keep learning and do everything I can to support my teammates!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a successful debut by stagiaire Jamie Meehan, Cofidis wasted no time and immediately locked the Irishman into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-72134","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\/72134","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=72134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}