"This is the most beautiful victory of my career": Amandine Fouquenet takes her chance on Belgian soil

On December 23 it was turn for the Superprestige Heusden-Zolder, the last race before Christmas day. There were high expectations mostly because Lucinda Brand was absent, which made the race wide open, and Amandine Fouquenet made the most of the opportunity. 

The French rider launched a decisive move just before the final lap, slipping away from a small lead group formed by Inge van der Heijden, Aniek van Alphen and Blanka Kata Vas to claim a prestigious solo victory in Belgium, which was also the first she got outside of France. Vas and Van Alphen completed the podium.

After the finish, Fouquenet did not hide her emotion. “This is the most beautiful victory of my career,” she said. “I’ve already been French champion twice, of course. But winning in Belgium is something else entirely,” she said in quotes collected by Sporza.

The victory could not have come at a better time, as her future is still uncertain. The Arkéa rider has still not found a new home for the upcoming 2026 road season, as her team will no longer exist on January 1. “Hopefully this win helps me find a new contract. Ideally with a team where I can continue to combine road racing and cyclo-cross.”

Blanka Vas, who finished second, was relieved after a difficult period earlier in the cyclocross season. “I’m very happy with this second place,” she said. “After the Koppenberg [at the beginning of November] I had a tough period and skipped several races.”

Asked about the events that disrupted the chase, Vas dismissed them as race incidents. “I thought Van der Heijden would start riding, but suddenly she stopped. And I was already on my limit. regarding a shoulder-to-shoulder bump, that was a race incident. We were riding into each other in the chasing group."

For Van Alphen, however, the situation was unfair. “That phase in the corner after the second pit area wasn’t clean. One of the three of us was always going to be the victim, and that ended up being Van der Heijden.” 

Hesitation amongst the chasers was the decisive factor that allowed Fouquenet to secure the victory. “Blanka looked at us asking why we weren’t riding, but we were thinking about the overall standings. That’s how it turned into a tactical standoff.”