Arkea's hopes of survival dwindling as October 1 deadline looms
Arkéa-B&B Hotels manager Emmanuel Hubert has conceded that hopes have all but faded for his team to secure a new sponsor and avoid folding at the end of this season.
October 1 marks the deadline for submitting bank guarantees to the UCI in order to register the team for 2026, and the squad’s hopes are now hanging on the decision of a final potential backer.
Hubert told L’Équipe that he expects an answer from the potential sponsor this week, but he appeared resigned to the fate of his team, which began 20 years ago as Bretagne-Jean Floc’h.
“The economic situation is complicated, very bad, and the warning lights are getting redder and redder,” Hubert said. “But I’ve always been optimistic, that’s my nature. This project must continue; it needs to be refined. There is still potential to create a very beautiful structure.”
In June, both Arkéa and B&B Hotels confirmed that they would not renew their sponsorship deals at the end of this season. Although Hubert gave his riders his blessing to seek new teams, he remained upbeat about his prospects of securing a new sponsor during the Tour de France, where Kévin Vauquelin impressed en route to seventh overall.
By the start of this month, however, the outlook was sobering, with Hubert admitting to Le Parisien that there was a “90% chance” his team would cease operations at season’s end.
“I had about fifteen potential targets that have disappeared one after the other,” Hubert said. “The economic situation is really not good at the moment for a company to agree to put millions into cycling.”
Hubert reportedly paid the €80,000 licence deposit to the UCI on the September 15 deadline out of his own pocket in a bid to buy time to find a new sponsor. Six days from the decisive deadline, however, the prognosis is bleak.
The scramble for contracts in the pro peloton this winter looks set to be particularly fraught. The end of the season will already see the disappearance of at least one other major team, with Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty set to merge for 2026.
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