On the sidelines of the press conference given by Michel Callot after his re-election as head of the French Cycling Federation this Tuesday, the president of the FFC spoke with Cyclism’Actu at the headquarters of the federation at the Vélodrome Nationale de Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines in Montigny-le-Bretonneux. Clubs in pain, economic problems, Super World Championships… Michel Callot discussed his main areas of work during his third (and final) four-year mandate. Interview.
Video – Michel Callot’s first words after his re-election
“This time, my competitor ran a real campaign…”
President Callot, this year 2024 is ending well for you…
Yes, it’s a year that necessarily ends well when you win an election that’s for sure, and then which comes to close a very special year, which will remain in our memories for many reasons, notably with these Paris 2024 Olympic Games which have magnified French sport. Being able, at the end of this year, to renew a mandate is the additional satisfaction that I could expect at the end of the year.
Never two without three as they say… but this election was the closest
Yes then for reasons which are also explained, the first I was all alone so I didn’t have too many worries and then it was a real transition with David Lappartient, so things were relatively simple. The second, I had a competitor but I’m not sure that he was going to be the competitor himself, moreover with Cyril Guimard, and it was a bit of folklore, we can say it today. This time, my competitor ran a real campaign, he spent a lot of time going into the field, unfortunately, I didn’t have as much time as him to be able to make myself available. It is to his merit and he met a certain number of clubs, he took an action which seems positive to me, that of being able to speak with club leaders. I would put a little nuance on the end of the campaign which was a little deleterious and in my opinion very aggressive and unnecessarily aggressive towards the team in place. This is what I regret about these last few weeks. I don’t know if that had a factor in the score but it explains in any case that with around 70% today, I consider myself to be rather well elected in a voting system that has changed, and when we look at how The presidents of the main federations were elected who were subject to competition, I think I am rather at the top of the range.
Your competitor, Teodoro Bartuccio, emerged thanks to a malaise in the clubs, you who are re-elected, qWhat message do you have to say to these clubs who are suffering a lot in France?
I don’t perceive it the same way. I don’t think many clubs are suffering in the sense we understand. Clubs are leaders who lead an associative project. Most are happy to do that, they are involved, there is an almost family life in a club life. On the other hand, obviously to unpack their associative project, they are faced with more difficulties. So in particular the difficulties linked to the economic evolution of our society, our clubs are not immune to that. And then on a sector which is perhaps the one which stood out the most during this campaign, the road sector, other external difficulties, that of security is very important, that of the complexity today to organize demonstrations on public roads. We must consider that on these subjects, the federation tries to have actions, tries to produce effects, but we cannot have the magic wand and we unfortunately cannot prevent society from evolving at the same time. and to find themselves confronted with an increasingly shared space.
“The World Super Championships are the bet for 2027”
In recent weeks, we have heard a lot that French cycling is in danger, do you agree with that?
No, I see it there either, not at all. SFrom this angle, we have French cycling which remains, by far, the best cycling in the world under many different parameters. Already on its volume, which is important, but also on its level of performance with its eclecticism. We are present in almost all cycling disciplines, we will see it in 2027, which is not the case for many nations. And then when we also focus on what stands out the most, on road cycling, I think we should not self-flagellate and hurt ourselves before we feel pain.
For the moment, we have a significant number of professional teams. We see that our high-level amateur structures responded to the projects that we proposed to them to take another step forward. And I hope that we will get to the UCI announcements which will follow very quickly, 5 in federal continental. It shows that we have vigor, that we have dynamism, that we have resilience among our organizers too. We see that our calendars remain full when we talk about high level. And this strength of French cycling, for me, continues to exist. While our competitors, the other European countries, suffer from the same factors that we mentioned earlier. And we are resisting largely as well as the others.
This third term, obviously, is the 2027 World Super Championships in your region, in your department…
First for France, yes. These are the World Super Championships in France in 2027. So they will take place in Haute-Savoie, which is a fantastic playground, because it allows us to also host all the outdoor disciplines there. Mountain biking, gravel, which will find extraordinary areas of expression, in addition to the more classic disciplines, we will say. But above all, it is the media power, the number of spectators expected at this event, around our sport, cycling and only cycling, for a good ten days. This is what we need to work on so that it can send an echo back to our clubs and so that we can associate many projects, ultimately, related to the societal issues of cycling, mobility, training, all these issues, health, and that even more clubs, today, can take up these subjects, improve on them, grow, become professional. That’s the bet of 2027, it’s not just the sports bet, it’s a bet to make our entire federation, all of cycling, grow around lots of themes that we can, little by little, get attached to. 2027.
To conclude, what would you say to those who doubt a third mandate for Michel Callot?
I want to tell them that I’m going there with fantastic energy, because I believe that, in life, we must always tell ourselves that the most important thing, it’s knowing how to finish what we start, and I, in 4 years, I know that I will have finished, and I want this federation, which will be transmitted at that time, the keys that I will pass to a person who will come to succeed me, a woman or a man, I want to give them a federation which is in the best possible state, which has all the ingredients to be able to function well, and which gives scope to the performance of French cycling, to the fact that the Cycling remains among the biggest sports in France, and, as I said earlier, it is very important that France remains the leading cycling nation in the world.
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