Pineau slams TotalEnergies Heulot move: 'Not the most reliable guy'

On RMC’s Grand Plateau podcast, Pineau was blunt in his assessment of Berneaudeau's decision to step aside in favour of Heulot. 

“He is handing over to a guy who has ruined more teams than he has helped succeed,” Pineau said, adding: “I ruined one myself, B&B Hotels - KTM in 2022, I take full responsibility for that. But everyone in the sport knows he is not the most reliable guy.”

Pineau maintains that TotalEnergies is not just another ProTeam trying to survive the calendar. The Bernaudeau project has always sold something rarer than results: continuity, local roots, and an internal pathway from Vendée U to the top squad. Pineau, a product of that pipeline and a former rider for Bernaudeau, sees Heulot as a mismatch. “This team is different,” he said. “We have a philosophy, we the former Vendée riders, that he has trampled by making this choice.”

Heulot arrives after three seasons leading Lotto, a stretch that ended with the merger of Lotto with Intermarché ahead of the 2026 campaign. 

Before that came a management career that Pineau clearly views as unsettled: Saur Sojasun from 2009 to 2013, Rally Cycling from 2019 to 2021, then Lotto from 2023 to 2025. Cycling teams do not collapse for one reason only, but Pineau’s point is that patterns become reputations quickly in this sport.

Pineau also suggested the appointment only makes sense if Heulot can deliver additional sponsorship for the team. “He arrives with one thing, I hope, a partner in his pocket,” he said. “But in terms of preparation, values, the overall message, it has nothing to do with this team. He never raced for this team, never lived inside this team. What message are we sending?”

That question cuts to the heart of what TotalEnergies is trying to be in modern cycling. With budgets rising and long term sponsor security becoming harder to guarantee, teams are increasingly pulled toward managerial profiles that can sell, fundraise, and negotiate, sometimes at the expense of internal culture. 2026 is ut a pressure point, the final year under the team’s current title sponsorship, when the project’s next chapter starts to take shape and every decision carries extra weight.

Pineau was blunt on that trade-off, arguing the team had other options closer to its DNA. “People have come through this team who are very brilliant, far more brilliant than Mister Heulot,” he said.

He stopped short of predicting outright failure, but his closing verdict was clear. “I do not know what Heulot is capable of, I do not know if this choice will pay off, but allow me to doubt it strongly.”