Emmanuel Hubert, manager of the Arkéa-Samsic cycling training, is sounding the alarm on the model of French cycling, “strangled” by costs and charges.
French cycling in full doubt. In an interview with Ouest-France, Emmanuel Hubert, general manager of the Arkéa-Samsic team, is concerned about the fragility of the current model, dependent on private partners to ensure operating costs and taxes and keep the structure afloat . He believes his team is on the front line facing the risk of disappearance as it aims to remain in the World Tour in 2025. She is currently in 19th place when the first 18 places will ensure a place in the elite.
“In less than five years, 60% of French teams will have disappeared”
“My team style is in danger,” he explains in the daily. “One hundred and fifty employees would be put at risk if a partner were to leave. Because I have no visibility beyond December 31, 2025. We bet on having a structure with World Tour professionals, a development team and a female one. We play the game. Sport creates a wonderful bond in society, we saw it again during the Olympics, but we need support.”
According to Ouest-France, the manager would like tax exemptions to help reduce the gap with foreign training. “This model is no longer viable,” he warns. “In less than five years, 60% of French teams will have disappeared. What is happening in the amateur world will very quickly affect the professional world. We are impacted on a global level. We are becoming poorer from our base. We need to the professional world helps the base more But how can we do more when we are strangled?
Emmanuel Hubert is not the first leader to predict a crisis. Yvon Caër, current sporting director of Groupama-FDJ, was concerned about the state of practice at grassroots level after the disappearance of two Breton amateur teams this week. “It’s not amateur cycling that’s going into the wall, it’s cycling that’s going into the wall,” he lamented in the Télégramme. “The high amateur level is not at all representative of the base of cycling and what goes into the wall is the base. The juniors, the cadets… So, we say that there is no no more races but there are no more races because there are no more runners! As soon as a cadet wins three races, we want to make him a professional. In the past, there were 50 who. won three races in the department. The high amateur level is just going in the direction of the base of the bike which is going very, very badly. In the professional world, there is more and more money, in the amateur world, it is. ‘is the opposite.”
