22/01/2023

"Our salaries for November and December have not been paid"- Former B&B Hotels rider Pierre Barbier reveals financial chaos within the team

The tragic tale of French Pro Conti team B&B Hotels-KTM team demise keeps having more details. This time, Pierre Barbier one of the best riders of the team in 2022 reveled in Ouest-France that the former team that now is extinguished still owes money to their former riders.

“Our salaries for November and December have not been paid, our travel expenses have not been paid since May, nor have our bonuses, and we have zero returns. It's crazy. In this case, you don't fall from one floor, but from thirty”, stated Barbier in an interview with Ouest-France.

Audrey Cordon-Ragot recalls B&B Hotels-KTM's deception: "For two months, we were pushed around"

Few would think during the end of the last season that this would be the future reserved to B&B and their riders. With talks about signing the likes of legendary sprinter Mark Cavendish, Cees Bol and Nick Schultz to step up the game and who knows in the future get to World Tour. Plans to invest in women's cycling, by opening a Women's cycling team. And a new sponsor that would increase the salary expenditure, and attractiveness of the team, B&B Hotels seemed destined to really step up the level and became one of the best Pro Conti teams in 2023.

Instead, the riders faced a lot of uncertainty and eventually a note from the team related to their closeness on a very late stage of the cycling transfers period. That forced riders like one of the best general classification riders of the early last decade Pierre Rolland, seasoned veteran Cyril Gautier who was part of 2011 Europcar team that helped Thomas Voeckler secure an epic Tour performance, combative puncheur Thibault Ferasse, climber Elliot Lietaer and Julien Morice to an unplanned retirement with no glory.

B&B Hotels-KTM were "sold a dream" and "conned" according to Pierre Rolland

Pierre Barbier himself is no stranger to abrupt team ends since he was also part of Delko team who closed their doors due to financial problems in 2021. Still, the 28 years old sprinter managed to find space in the ranks of Continental Team CIC U Nantes-Atlantique.

But the later cant be said about sprinter Jérémy Lecroq, former German U23 National Champion Miguel Heidemann, veteran lead out man Jens Debusschere, and young Canadian rider Raphael Parisella who still are with their future open since they neither found a team nor announced their retirement from professional cycling.

Other riders like sprinter Luca Mozzato, mountain bike rider Victor Koretzky and one of the team leaders Franck Bonnamour managed to get into the World Tour ranks. Some, like promising punch sprinter Axel Laurence and Belgian lead out man Jordi Warlop didn't find space on the World Tour Teams but signed with their development ones with a prospect of mid-season climb to the main ones.

And other like former World Tour riders Alexis Gougeard and Quentin Jauregui (both of them with more than 6 seasons in World Tour level) had to drop to the amateur level, signing for French amateur racing teams.