St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 close men's team to focus fully on women's cycling from 2027

Traditional French outfit St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 will close its men's branch to focus solely on its women's team from 2027 onwards. This marks the end of a story which started back in 1980s as the team from Aubervilliers gained strong reputation on French roads, turning professional in 1994. But three decades later, the painful decision has been made that a more promising future for the formation will be in the world of women's cycling, stepping down to amateur ranks at the end of this season.

"To meet the challenges of cycling today and tomorrow, the club will focus all of its professional resources from 2027 onward on a single professional team: the women’s team, currently registered as a UCI Women’s ProTeam," a team press release on Tuesday read.

"[The club] has diversified, it has developed talent, it has achieved success. However, in a professional cycling landscape undergoing significant change, it must adapt. Cycling today raises its standards a little higher each day. The successes of yesterday are no longer possible with today's conditions. They seem completely unattainable in the future without profound transformation."

The team from central France leaves behind a legacy of one of the most decorated continental teams of recent era with an extensive record of providing talented (but sometimes overlooked) talents with a platform to fulfill their dreams of turning professional. The list of Auber93 alumnis features Tony Gallopin, Steve Chainel and Thierry Gouvenou. Meanwhile the presence of Joris Delbove, Jason Tesson, Thomas Gachignard, Alexandre Delettre or Nicolas Breuillard in the professional ranks underlines the teams' invaluable contribution to French cycling.

The women's club team formed in 2020, only turning professional in 2022 and stepping up to ProTeam level just this year. Yet despite the relative youth of this project, the ladies have already enjoyed three Tour de France Femmes invitations - something that logically appeals to both sponsors and management.

"I am deeply attached to the history of our team and our club. I joined the organization in 1989 and, through different roles, I have witnessed the evolution of both the structure and cycling as a whole. I fully understand the significance of the decision we are making for the future," club CEO Stephan Gaudry said.

"We are closing a chapter spanning several decades, during which we competed in the world’s greatest races, won a stage of the Tour de France, and had the honor of wearing the French national champion’s jersey."

Though the professional project going forward will be focused on women's cycling, the club won't disappear from the roads entirely in the men's section either. While details are still under construction, it's expected that Auber93 will continue on a smaller scale as a N2 (second division) team on French amateur circuit with possibility to secure invitations to smaller UCI events.

"Our journey is not over — it continues as it always has: with courage, humility, and ambition. Refocusing our professional activity on women’s cycling will allow us to approach the future with greater resources, renewed energy, and stronger ambitions," Gaudry concluded.

"This new chapter is part of an ambitious roadmap designed to make the UCI Women’s ProTeam the driving force of a club whose amateur structure will also be reorganized around objectives of development, education, and transmission."