OFFICIAL | Arkéa B&B Hotels to end at the end of 2025 - French team unable to secure its future

For several months now it seemed inevitable, and even with the breakthrough Tour de France the team experienced, there was not much that could have been done. World Tour team Arkéa - B&B Hotels will come to a close at the end of 2025, ending a 20-year old project.

Being a French team, its always been able to take advantage of the nation's large cycling audience and the big events including the Tour de France which provided it with a lot of exposure. For many years this was known as the Bretagne team, until in 2016 there was a big change in sponsors and the team became Fortuneo - Vital Concept. In 2019 it became Team Arkéa Samsic and ever since, Arkéa was the title sponsor for the team, whilst B&B Hotels came from a different team that has been disbanded in recent years. On the French market there are struggles to maintain the biggest projects alive, with TotalEnergies also set to experience trouble next season as its title sponsor began a partnership with INEOS Grenadiers.

Arkéa had a few years ago Nairo Quintana onboard, alongside the signing of Arnaud Démare which raised the team's level significantly and also saw its ride to World Tour level in 2023, the new UCI points cycle. However even in the very best case scenario, Arkéa was going to lose this license due to the lack of UCI points this year, being the lowest-scoring World Tour team, and also behind three ProTeams. Effectively, the project was only possibly going to survive as a ProTeam once again, but with the departure of its title sponsors, there was a year-long pursuit for new collaborators - spearheaded by team manager Emanuel Hubert. This was not successful, and today L'Équipe confirms the news that had been feared for months.

The team has seen the substantial rise of Kévin Vauquelin this year, finishing on the podium of the Tour de Suisse after leading for several days and then riding a brilliant Tour de France where he was seventh in Paris, but the team had already lost the Frenchman at that point, someone who could have been used as a token to have a new sponsor. Vauquelin will join INEOS Grenadiers, last year's Tour of Flanders runner-up Luca Mozzato will join Tudor Pro Cycling whilst the veteran Démare has confirmed recently his retirement.