{"id":222368,"date":"2025-10-18T09:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T09:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/222368\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T09:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T09:18:12","slug":"it-was-heartbreaking-for-me-personally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/222368\/","title":{"rendered":"It was heartbreaking for me personally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Hansen<\/a>, director of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associ\u00e9s (CPA<\/a>), has written his first extensive column<\/a> offering insights from the peloton. The former pro writes that he was impressed by the organization at the World Championships, despite a \u201cslightly too difficult course.\u201d More interesting are Hansen’s insights on the merger of Lotto and Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty<\/a>.Hansen shares his findings on the big and small things in the sport \u201cbecause the CPA<\/a> wants cycling to be seen as a top-level global sport, a sport that attracts sponsors who want to invest in the future\u201d. \u201cThe World Championships were the best one-day event I have ever experienced as a fan, and they showed exactly the direction our sport should be taking.\u201dLess good news came from Lotto and Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty<\/a>, according to Hansen, who wants to merge in 2026 under the name Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9. This means that another team will disappear from the WorldTour, after Ark\u00e9a-B&B Hotels, among others, already announced that it will cease operations after 2025. The future of TotalEnergies as the new sponsor of INEOS Grenadiers is unclear.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar\"\/<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar at the World Cup in Rwanda<\/p>\n

CPA speaks out after disappearance of cycling teams<\/p>\n

Hansen calls the disappearance of various teams \u201ca new major problem.\u201d \u201cAt the CPA, we are really not happy about this. Everyone knows that there are 44 contracts between the two merging teams, but only 30 places are available. Riders who still don’t know in October whether they will have a job next season \u2014 that’s exactly what we don’t want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a meeting with the UCI and both teams together, and I asked for a clear list of the 30 riders who can stay, as well as the 14 who cannot,\u201d said Hansen, who intends to help the riders without a team with their future. \u201cThe riders were entitled to clarity about their situation, and they should have known this months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"lotto\"\/CPA had to break the bad news to riders themselves<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really struck me was how many riders were uncertain about their future. It was even more painful to have to tell some of them that they don’t have a contract for next year.\u201d The fact that the CPA had to break such news is a painful reality. \u201cThe CPA shouldn’t have to break this kind of news, and certainly not in October. It was heartbreaking for me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

That needs to improve in the future, but Hansen also writes: “At the same time, I want to thank both teams for their cooperation in finding a solution so that there will be a team next year. The situation for teams is becoming increasingly difficult \u2014 four teams were on the verge of collapse this season \u2014 so it’s positive that two teams were able to merge and allow one team to continue.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adam Hansen, director of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associ\u00e9s (CPA), has written his first extensive column offering insights from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-222368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}