TotalEnergies team survives as new three-year sponsor announcement imminent

After months of uncertainty and the loss of half of their riders, the TotalEnergies squad have found new life, according to Ouest France.

An official announcement from managers Jean-René Bernaudeau and Stéphane Heulot is expected on November 9, according to Cyclism'Actu.

TotalEnergies made the October 15 deadline to file for a 2027 licence but were unable to complete the required financial paperwork due to the uncertainty around their sponsorship.

At the time, Bernaudeau said, "We need to have ten riders under contract and a sponsor providing a bank guarantee before being interviewed in December to finalise the budget. The end of the month is obviously the deadline; we promised ourselves we wouldn't go beyond October 31st."

Bernaudeau appears to have met that cutoff with the imminent announcement of a title sponsor for the next three years.

However, the team will have to be aggressive in the transfer market over the next three years if they hope to rejoin the WorldTour in 2029, as they have lost their top points scorers during the uncertainty surrounding their future, some of whom have made a step up to the WorldTour.

Their GC hopeful Jordan Jegat, who finished 10th overall in the Tour de France and won the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs in April, has already signed for Lidl-Trek. Classics specialist Anthony Turgis and Nicolas Breuillard have already inked deals with XDS Astana, and Alexandre Delettre, along with Emilien Jeannière, a podium finisher in the Scheldeprijs, and Sandy Dujardin left for Groupama-FDJ. Pierre Thierry signed with Cofidis.

Meanwhile, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Thomas Bonnet and Mattéo Vercher jumped ship for ProTeam Burgos-Burpellet BH, while Lorrenzo Manzin, Geoffrey Bouchard and Fabien Greiller retired.

Bernaudeau may yet hold on to Jason Tesson, winner of the Classic Var, who was their fourth-best scorer in 2026, and Tour of Mentougou winner Joris Delbove, who are among the 14 riders who have not yet announced their 2027 contracts.

The outfit have a long history in the peloton, having been founded in 1986. They were briefly a professional team as Castorama before returning to a development programme. In 2000, Bernaudeau landed Bonjour as a title sponsor and, under that banner and later as Brioches La Boulangère, Bouygues Télécom and Team Europcar became fixtures in the ProTour, the predecessor to the WorldTour.

Thomas Voeckler's ten-day stint in the maillot jaune in 2004 was the team's biggest highlight, but by 2009, the team were forced to drop out of the top tier and almost disbanded in 2010 as they struggled to find a sponsor until Europcar came along.

The team brought on Direct Énergie as a sponsor in 2019 and, as TotalEnergies, signed superstar Peter Sagan with high ambitions of rejoining the WorldTour, but the three-time world champion won only a single race for the French outfit, a stage of the Tour de Suisse in 2022, and the team did not meet the promotion criteria by the end of 2025.

In 2026, the team fell short of the top three ProTeams, being beaten by Pinarello-Q36.5, Tudor and Cofidis, so they will not earn automatic invitations to the Grand Tours. However, they remain eligible for wildcard entries as they made the top 30 in the UCI Team Rankings, and as the fourth-best ProTeam, will be invited to the one-day WorldTour events.

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