In this year 2025, the Wagner Bazin WB structure took a new turn. After two years in N1, then a year on a continental, it is now at the Proteam level that the structure carried by the businessman, resulting from the merger with Bingoal-WB. After the first months to this new level, Directive took advantage of the presence of Philippe Wagner at the Tour de Bretagne to take stock of his project, while the runners in the green and white jersey have sometimes struggled to exist in the professional peloton.
Directvelo: How do you judge the start of the season?
Philippe Wagner: We started a fanfare in Sharjah, we made a victory. Afterwards, I think the runners are quickly seen by Proteam. Suddenly, there has been a lot of disappointments, and the time to wake them up, to put them in the right direction … Now it has started to rebuild for some time. We still had two months of fairly disappointing beat. But when you have a warrior in his head, even if he is less strong, it remains a warrior. If we imagine ourselves immediately among the best, we lose part of its effectiveness. And I think we had to return to humility. Now that she has returned, we are starting to find a positive slope. It rebuilds well. Here (Tour de Bretagne, editor’s note)there is (Michiel) Lambrecht who defends himself very well, who put all his guts, so it starts to come back in the right direction.
One can imagine that the ambition was not simply to take the escapes …
Sometimes we’re talking about escapes, but it’s not just that. To be clear, on a continental, we make escaped. In Proteam, the stake was not that one at all. For the moment yes, we were satisfied a bit of that, but that’s not the goal.
“We need victories”
There were some disappointments such as the absence in Paris-Roubaix …
Yes, it was a disappointment, but we still had all the great Belgian classics. And frankly, on Liège-Bastogne-Liège, we still had three runners in the escape. And really valiant. This one for the time being, it was not in this vision of advertising escape. It was really the most valiant of the team, who went strong, strong, strong.
Brittany becomes an important land for the company. There will be challenges on the next professional races …
Yes, it’s imperative. For us, Brittany is already a bicycle land. It is also a land of cold meats (smile). So we have double blows to do. We launched a brand at the very beginning of the year which is the Breton peasant brand in charcuterie. It is a brand that already exists in dairy products. And we have the opportunity to launch it in cold cuts. So we launched it. For us, to be there in Brittany, to do performance, it allows us to promote this mark of cold meats on these lands.
What are your expectations and ambitions in general?
We must now have more than a podium. We need victories. And it is a bit of the most lively forces to bring to this performance and create a dynamic of winning in the team. The big moments are on the races in Brittany, the Alsace Tour. The 4 days of Dunkirk are a strong step also for us. We are both present and sponsor of the event.
“Being able to make decisions”
-How was this merger with Bingoal and its sponsor stuck by law against sports betting?
For us, it was a great issue, since it was in our walking plan. We did two years in N1, one year with a first merger in Conti, and therefore we can refusion. This is a bit the principle we have in companies, if we want to generate rapid growth, we merger. So it was a merger of a team that was already well structured, when we had a little more trouble having our place as a manager. We do this work precisely to acquire a more important place and bring this vision of business manager who still lacks a little to the team.
How is this double France-Belgium side going?
There, there is no particular problem. It is true that Belgians are more used to classics. And today, the best of the team are Belgians who have really managed to adapt to longer races. For the French, we come to have them rubbed in Belgium, teach them to run a little differently. I find it a great diversity. This year most of the staff comes from Bingoal, we had a greater diversity last year. But we have kept our driver-owner. We have Jacques Decrion who is at the performance center. We will make the staff evolve over time.
How is the team structured with Christophe Brandt, among others?
Me, I have a much more direct vision of an organization as in my business, where both I do transversal and vertical management. But you also have to be able to make decisions, readjust things. It’s a bit in the sense that I try to take him. It’s like an SME. We are an SME in the company. The world moves. If we do not reappear in front of a moving world, it’s more complicated.
“Mark a break”
But currently, you are manager and Christophe Brandt too …
Me, for the moment, I have a status as president, but it is not quite president in the sense that we can hear it, as we see. It is rather president in an associative form. So there is still to bring in a more punchy management.
Is the project where you want to at the start?
There, it’s perfect. Now you have to take a break. Then, what is interesting, as I say, in the current world that moves, in the world of cycling, it is showing that we are present. That behind, there is a business manager who also brings a vision that is solid, which is present on the races. And that is to say: if we can make others want to join us, why not?
And one day, maybe you imagine joining the WorldTour?
In a walking plan, you can say yes in 4-5 years. But you have to start performing now. You have to show that you can weigh on races as Proteam. And at that time, we can resume the walking plan forward.
