Arkéa - B&B Hotels and Florian Sénéchal issue public apology to Bianchi amidst furore over Paris-Roubaix bike quality

The ongoing drama between Arkéa - B&B Hotels, Florian Sénéchal and their bike manufacturer, Bianchi seems to have reached a resolution.

"It wasn't going well with my bike. My fork or my stem was starting to give out. There were carbon noises and it was becoming cardboard. I got scared and stopped to change bikes. In any case, I couldn't go any faster because I couldn't pull on the handlebars. And I didn't want to fall on my collarbone," the Frenchman told Cyclism'Actu post-Paris-Roubaix, lashing out at the poor quality of the Bianchi bikes. "I had to change bikes four times. At the Carrefour de l'Arbre, the handlebars of my second bike came loose. I think that we have a technical problem with our bike and we'll have to look into it. It's annoying to always have problems."

In response, the bike manufacturer turned things back onto the team itself and their poor handling of the equipment. "Following discussions between Bianchi and the technical staff of the team, it emerged that the specific instructions provided by Bianchi for assembling the handlebars of bikes were disregarded in some cases, causing disparities in the handling of the bicycles in competition," they countered.

Now, in a final comment on the matter, the French-based team and their rider have issued a public apology to Bianchi. "Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Florian Sénéchal would like to jointly apologize for the statements made on Sunday April 7 at the finish of Paris-Roubaix and provide the following clarifications regarding the statements made by its rider to the media on Sunday," the statement reads. "Following discussions between Bianchi and the team's technical staff, it emerged that Bianchi's specific instructions for mounting the bicycle handlebars were ignored in some cases, causing differences in the handling of the bicycles during the race."

"Bianchi is a renowned, progressive bicycle brand with an innovative, high-quality research and development department that puts the safety of everyone who uses its bicycles first. The team, general manager Emmanuel Hubert and all our riders would like to reaffirm their full confidence in Bianchi bicycles. We have already won seven races this season with Bianchi's equipment: five road races for men, one for women and the FK cyclocross. Luca Mozzato also recently finished second in the Tour of Flanders," they conclude.