At 68 years old, Jean-René Bernaudeau is a permanent fixture in the peloton. Despite an “uncomfortable” Pro Team status, the Vendéen continues to develop Team TotalEnergies and still hopes to shine in the Tour de France. World Tour, Tour de France, Pogacar, carbon dioxide, amateur Cycling and transmission: long interview with a cycling enthusiast.
At the dawn of his 26th season in the professional peloton, Jean-René Bernaudeau has not lost his outspokenness. Accessible and open, the Vendéen did not hesitate to grant us an interview. Between two meetings and in the middle of the week before the Vendée Globe, the TotalEnergies training director spoke for more than 30 minutes about his team and current cycling, from which he feels increasingly distant. But without losing his enthusiasm and passion.
Your season was contrasted with a difficult start to the seasonsome great performances on classics then a successful Tour. How do you judge this 2024 season?
It is much better than last year. We must remain humble, the high level is fragile. It's a great season which has shown our values in an environment which is looking for its bearings.
However, in terms of UCI points, you are doing less well than last year…
Ah the points! No, we don't look at the points. Turgis' victory is worth all the points you want.
Absolutely not. It is a regulation which creates a hierarchy linked to UCI points. From these regulations, you have to know what you are capable of doing. We know that we have undergone this change in regulations which requires that we count the points of the 20 best riders of each team. Obviously, teams with 30 riders plus a devo who replaces them when there is a problem, mathematically have a better chance. It's a race that we lost in advance.
“Isn't the World Tour moving towards a closed circuit with 18 teams? »
You say that the World Tour is not a goal…
No, it's not a goal, it's a consequence. This is the leitmotif when I bring my guys together: the ranking is a consequence of our performance, so that comes afterwards. When you want to cultivate victory, you have to take the risk of losing in order to win. If in one's subconscious one thinks of the points, then one assures, and if one assures, there is no longer any flavor. It's a complicated subject, this race for points, and we can clearly see that the system has shown its limits.
With this system, you are between 19th and 21st place. Isn't it frustrating not to be higher?
It's not frustrating, but it's not comfortable. Tudor and Uno-X are really what sport is all about, that new projects emerge and have the possibility of existing. But isn't the World Tour moving towards a closed circuit with 18 teams? I think that the Bernaudeau of 2000 could not have existed today. This system brings together organizers, players who are the teams, and an authority, the UCI, which must settle all that. And project what our sport will be like in a few years.
Do you have any requests or advice to send to the UCI for the development of cycling?
We're lucky to see sports and other actors doing things that shouldn't be done. We are talking about buying contracts, riders, we even have teams who have bought their place in the World Tour. I don't want the word 'buy' to be part of our vocabulary. We need to train, recruit, develop a project. We have a project based on the sport study of La Roche sur Yon, the Vendée U and the pro team. Where does the UCI place us? Are we important to them? We can't change, we have a sponsor who follows us, we have revelations with Jeannière, Vercher, Burgaudeau, Gachignard, we have a fairly significant dose of pleasure.
Listening to you, we understand that you prefer to win two races with riders trained in Vendée U, than to win the Tour with a rider recruited at a high price.
I'm lucky to have a powerful sponsor, but if tomorrow he asks me to win the Tour, we could recruit watts and points, but that has no flavor. So I wouldn't do it. Neither does my sponsor. We are here to give meaning to what we do, and high-level sport has two areas of progression: attractiveness and credibility. Me, today, I like Pogacar a lot. He's nice, but inhaling carbon dioxide is bad for the reputation of cycling. For me it's not good. It's someone who creates emotion, but inhaling carbon dioxide is dramatic, I see children in cycling schools asking if we have the machine for that! It's dramatic. The important thing is credibility.
How can we resolve this development and its problems?
I want kindness, and above all I want to build men of value. We have developed the performance center well with Maxime Robin, we have a CNRS researcher who has just joined the team, we are investing in the development of our structure. There for 8 days, all the sports studies students at La Roche sur Yon passed through the hands of our ergonomists. We're looking for our place, I think we've found it, we're bending over and I think we're going to show that we're right. People need to understand that we only do sport, and that when sport goes well, business comes by itself.
You have found your place with this local project, with a strong identity. But it can only exist with the Tour de France, right?
Yes, the Tour de France is vital for us, that’s obvious. Now, the Tour de France has never been damaged. We respected the Tour, we loved it, we embellished it and we adore it. These are not advertising words, they are real. Our history is deep and we hope not to be left out of a world that is taking the wrong path.
Do you think you can participate in the 2025 Tour de France?
We had a nice Tour in 2024, we have a lot of young people. I think Mathéo Vercher had a magnificent Tour, we are up to it. Our team has always been there and in 2024, it seems to me that we are the best French team. We have honored the Tour de France which allows us to have a magnificent sport, and we have always respected it. We were actors every time.
“Alaphilipppe told me that it didn’t matter, he made his choice on instinct. Limit to a coin toss. That's life “
You have many promising and very interesting riders who have had a great season. However, how do you build a project for the Tour de France without a big headliner like Julian Alaphilippe?
We've done it before, it hasn't always worked out for us, but we must not lose our soul. Julian, we made him a very good offer, it was for nothing, he was even unhappy to have such a difficult choice to make. Now he's made this choice, that's life. It's a team that made an XXL recruitment, he perhaps took that into account because he didn't want to be the headliner of our team alone. He told me that it didn't matter, he made his choice on instinct. Limit to a coin toss. That's life.
You touched on the subject earlier, amateur cycling is in crisis. Clubs close, Cycling becomes a “rich man’s sport”many parents are afraid of their child riding a bike: the problems accumulate. Do you have any suggestions?
I'm lucky to live in a department that supports me, and we have a lot of projects for juniors and cadets. Very simple things to do that require common sense from the Vendée department. We're going to do it: bike loans, closed circuit races. Then, the professional sector must realize that it is not unhappy. However, when signing a professional contract, some clubs do not have a phone call. A club which has made the efforts to train the youngster, which has invested a lot, does not have a phone call, is not in the photo. There is nothing.
We are damaging volunteering and destroying the pyramid. In Vendée this is not the case because we talk to each other. When you sign a professional contract, it’s an event. But not for everyone. Often, it is agents who manage everything, from the junior level. I am fighting this system. In my team there are more than half of the riders who do not have an agent. There are no other teams like this anymore. We advise them, we answer their questions, our doors are open, we can discuss without worry. You don't need an agent to discuss this.
So we need to implement simple projects, but for the cost of sport?
Cycling is expensive, that’s a given. And on top of that, young people aged 12 to 16 have growth that can make them gain 10 cm in the year. So the bike, the shoes, it's too small. So there is an economic model to create. We have launched the bike loan, and we are going to do education. On Wednesdays in winter, when it rains, we go to workshops to learn how to maintain your bike. Do classic things.
“How do you manage a bike park with kids who gain up to 10 cm per year? »
From a financial point of view, you have a good solution for young people, but what about the clubs?
We can indeed talk about the training allowance, but it will not help the small clubs, only the big ones. At one time, I talked about compensation for the last and first training club, with the obligation for representatives to come into the photo. To celebrate this moment with the kid who just turned pro. It's not a solution, but it's part of respect for volunteering. But then, how do you manage a bike park with kids who gain up to 10 cm per year? I have a son who has a bike store, and who tells his parents: 'buy him a second-hand bike because in 6 months your kid will have grown up and the bike will be too small, and then I'll take it back from you at the same time. price'. We are in this process.
Today, the structure has grown, we have expanded it with the performance division, which Benoît Genauzeau developed. Benoit has taken on more and more responsibilities, so every task he takes on for himself is one less responsibility for me. I would like to continue until I can completely pass on my team. But today I am not worn out, I have plenty of projects and ideas, I am well supported by my department, so there is no fire to transmit them.
Do you have any candidates to take your place?
I'm not talking about candidates, because that's not sold, it's passed on. I'm not looking to sell. I have already had buyout offers, but I cut the discussions short.
Can you tell us more?
I had an offer from someone outside, who is not part of the company. But that is not my spirit and the philosophy of what I have built for 25 years. I have a lot of men on the team that I'm close to, who are loyal. Maybe there will be two of them to replace me, maybe that's the best thing. In any case Benoît Genauzeau is well placed.
Thomas is something else. He means so much to this team, he's our emblem, he's someone who obviously ticks a lot of boxes, but nothing is done at all.
