The prospects of survival of the French ProTeam B&B Hotels-KTM have reached a silent crisis point, as a November 30 sponsorship crunch deadline looms with no news of last-minute sponsor deals to guarantee the squad's continuity into 2023.
Hopes have slowly but steadily diminished that a widely heralded major expansion for next season, based around a link-up with the city of Paris and multiple different big-name sponsors and crowned with the possible signing of Mark Cavendish, would actually take place.
But after news of the team's expansion emerged on the last day of the 2022 Tour de France, none of these deals have so far actually materialised.
The delaying of deadlines of October 15 and November 22 for sponsorship news and/or presentation of paperwork to the UCI, as well as the cancellation of a press conference the day before the Tour de France presentation on October 27, has done very little to rekindle flagging optimism. And now unconfirmed rumours are flourishing that a number of riders in the team’s current and prospective 2023 line-up are already seeking employment in other squads.
Team manager Jerôme Pineau has already had to ask for special dispensation from the UCI and DNCG (the teams regulatory body in France) for an extended final cut-off point of November 30th.
He told L'Equipe two weeks ago that he had five leads on possible sponsors, with a last meeting due with potential backers on November 28, and warned that "If the five leads come to nothing, we are then in great danger and the team might not survive."
Since then an increasingly deafening silence from team management, beyond a succinctly phrased denial from the squad's spokesman of a report that contracted riders had been given the right to look elsewhere for teams, has spoken louder than words.
As of November 30, the 27-rider men's team, as well as the prospects of the creation of a new women's team and new feeder team all hang in the balance.
Riders like Belgian National Champion and Classics specialist, Jens Debusschere, are holding out for a last-minute solution. "I stay positive," he told Het Laatste Nieuws. "I very much want to believe that it will be ok."
"I really hope this team will continue," UCI President David Lappartient recently told regional TV station 3 Bretagne, "But time can't be extended indefinitely."
"Furthermore, this team, like all the others, has to hold its training camps and meet-ups. From a legal point of view, there are a lot of legal issues, notably with the race organisers as well as bank guarantees being needed."
Flooding the market?
The demise of the team could see more than 20 top-level riders suddenly find themselves on the transfer market, just six weeks before the new season begins.
Rumours are abounding regarding the prospects of Italian sprinter Luca Mozzato, said to be heading towards Arkéa-Samsic. Axel Laurance, second in the Bretagne Classic this year at 22, is said to have six different teams, including Ineos Grenadiers, vying for his signature. Franck Bonnamour, who won the Polynormande one-day race – one of B&B Hotels-KTM’s five victories in 2022 – is also said to have a squad lined up.
However, the rumour mill is notably less noisy regarding riders as well-known as 2011 Tour de France stage winner at Alpe d'Huez, Pierre Rolland while another veteran French rider, all-rounder Jonathan Hivert, is due to retire at the end of the year.
As for those due to sign in 2023, for weeks Mark Cavendish has been widely rumoured to have Israel-Premier Tech as a Plan B, even if as of two weeks ago, Pineau was adamant that the Briton was staying loyal for now.
"If I hadn't been in contact with Mark and if he didn't believe in our project, he would have already signed elsewhere," Pineau said, acknowledging contact with Manxman for the first time.
Less has been heard about the prospects of potential signees like current French National Champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo), said to be one key name for the women's squad.
Pineau is rumoured to need a 15 million euro annual budget to go ahead with the team in 2023, roughly double its current total.
A final verdict on B&B Hotels-KTM's future is set to be formally announced in the first half of December, possibly as soon as Monday 5th, when the UCI publish the list of team licences for next season.
According to a UCI press release last October, “the Commission will make its decisions…after evaluating the candidate teams' files on the basis of all five required criteria – sporting, administrative, ethical, financial and organisational – the totality of which must be fulfilled.”
