"We need to find €25 million or the team will disappear. It's heart-breaking" - Arkéa - B&B Hotels honest on perilous future of his team

As we near the end of the current UCI World Tour cycle, many teams are fighting for promotion or relegation from the elite level of the sport. For the Arkéa - B&B Hotels team however, there is a much more pressing concern ahead of the end of 2025 - the future of the entire team itself. 

“It’s unfortunately very simple,” explains the team boss Emmanuel Hubert in an open and honest interview with Le Parisien. “All our sponsorship contracts end in 2025. If I don’t have any guarantees that those deals will be extended, I don’t know who I can count on for the future. We need to find €25 million. If I can’t secure new partners, it’s over. The team will disappear.”

“It’s heart-breaking. There’s a real sense of injustice and frustration,” continues the 54-year-old Frenchman. “I’ve been in this business for twenty years. I know cycling inside and out, and I built this team with my own hands. People have mocked us at times, but we’ve always played fair - we’ve never taken shortcuts.”

In recent years, the team have brought through a number of notable riders, such as Kevin Vauquelin, Ewen Costiou and more, with other recognisable names such as Arnaud Demare, Cristian Rodriguez, Florian Senechal, Miles Scotson and Luca Mozzato among others. So with the precarious nature of the future of the team, what is the situation regarding the riders themselves.

“They know everything. I don’t want to hide anything from them. If they get an opportunity elsewhere, I tell them to go for it. I’m not here to hold anyone back - quite the opposite," Hubert says of the riders' situation. "They’re not tied to the team. We’ve offered them a professional and human environment of real quality. I want them to have a choice. Even though, as a manager, it’s never easy to watch a rider you’ve helped develop move on.”