Hubert’s existential warning is only partly based on Arkéa’s current standing on the UCI’s World Team table, in 19th place. Only those in the top 18 qualify for WorldTour team status but Arkéa trails the 18th-placed Pro team Uno-X Mobility by a mere 203 points.
And Arkéa have not had a terrible year, with nine victories, including a Tour de France stage, by Kévin Vauquelin, and second-place finishes in the Tour of Flanders, by Luca Mozzato, La Flèche Wallonne (Vauquelin), and the Arctic Race of Norway (Clément Champoussin). But the team’s problems run deeper than results and, Hubert warns, could threaten the future of other French teams. It might even explain, at least in part, why no French rider has won the Tour de France in 39 years.
“In fewer than five years, 60% of French teams will have disappeared,” Hubert predicted. “This model is no longer viable.”
The problem is not doping or a dearth of young riders eager to become Tour de France winners. It is the French tax system. French employment law requires cycling and other sports teams to register their athletes and staff as company employees rather than contractors as is the case for teams based in other countries. This reportedly costs French teams around 40% more, which means that they are unable to match salaries paid by teams in other countries and is one major reason Lenny Martínez, Axel Zingle, and Valentin Paret-Peintre will be riding for new teams in 2025.
“Everything just costs more,” Groupama-FDJ director Marc Madiot told L’Équipe. “These days, French teams are not in a position to fight with the top squads in terms of recruitment. We can’t go on dreaming.” He went on to say that this was the reason he could not keep Martinez from leaving for Bahrain Victorious.
“I couldn’t even fight for him,” Madiot said. “The difference for Martínez is astronomical. Afterwards, the agents will tell you your team is great for forming riders, but as soon as they’re [riding] at their best, it’s time [for them] to move on.”
The problem has been made worse recently by the astronomical increase in riders’ salaries, Cofidis manager Cedric Vasseur said, also speaking to L’Équipe. “When it’s 40% on a 50,000-euro annual salary, it’s not an enormous difference,” he said. “When it comes to 3 million, it’s a limiting factor. The real concern is that top talents no longer come to French teams because, tax-wise, they’re penalised.”
Which brings us back to the crisis at Arkéa, which has two sponsorship contracts that end in 2025. As a result, Champoussin left the team a year before his contract was to run out and signed for two years at Astana Qazaqstan. And the 27-year-old Italian Vincenzo Albanese is also leaving the team before his contract expires, Le Télégramme reported.
“Right now, I can’t guarantee them anything beyond December 31, 2025,” Hubert told the newspaper. “If they have a clause in their contract allowing them to do it, they have the possibility of committing themselves elsewhere. And they were very much in demand. I’m putting myself in their place; they have to think about what happens after 2025. Right now, I can’t offer them that [security]. I have to adapt myself to the situation. Face up to it.”
And French cycling may have to face up to its own existential crisis. If this tax issue is really one reason French riders have not won their home Grand Tour in nearly four decades – or any Grand Tour since 1995 – is a matter up for debate. But it is significant that none of the dominant riders in the sport this century has come from France or ridden for a French team.
In the meantime, Arkéa may be in its death throes and approaching the final year of its existence. Of necessity, the team has been nonexistent on the transfer market, adding only four riders from its Continental team to its World Tour team.
Hubert was at pains to see a silver lining, telling Le Télégramme, “I didn’t say that Arkéa and B&B Hotels will not renew their contracts [after 2025] because I always believe. But at this moment, I’m not sure. How do you want to build a project when you only have a year and two months of certainty left? I can’t attract anyone [because] I can’t satisfy the riders.”
He said that he is trying to negotiate with other potential sponsors but the outlook is not rosy. “At the moment, it’s 50-50 for 2026,” Hubert said.
