British Continental women\u2019s team Hess Cycling has collapsed citing the pressures of increasing budgets in the sport.<\/p>\n
The collapse follows a turbulent year for the team with a fraud investigation into its owner\u2019s business and allegations of missed payments to riders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Founded in 2023 under a licence from the Luxembourg cycling federation,\u00a0Hess registered as a British squad one year later<\/a>\u00a0and vowed to become “Britain’s leading professional women’s team” with the aim of competing in the\u00a0Tour de France Femmes<\/a>. However, the team will no longer operate.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n In a joint statement posted on Instagram on Monday<\/a>, team owner Rolf Hess alongside managers Norbert Stocker and Pirmin Lang said: \u201cIn the past years cycle sport has become increasingly competitive with huge increases in annual budgets.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring this year it became clear that a successful future for our team can only be secured by cooperating with a much stronger team and organisation. Until last week we were sure this could be achieved, unfortunately this is no longer the case and we have concluded to terminate Hess Cycling Team with immediate effect.\u201d<\/p>\n The management team thanked the fans for their support and said they \u201cregretted any inconvenience caused\u201d.<\/p>\n The team, which is part of a wider Hess Sports Group with investment in the Waterford FC football team alongside cycling, has racked up four podium finishes nationally and internationally this year alongside a raft of top tens.<\/p>\n Most notable among them were Alice McWilliam’s victory at the East Cleveland Classic and and Grace Lister\u2019s third place at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix.<\/p>\n However, the squad also had a turbulent year. In January it emerged the team\u2019s founder, London-based Swiss businessman Rolf Hess, was under investigation in Spain following fraud allegations<\/a> against his firm United Global Water Holdings Limited (UGW).<\/p>\n The team was also late to getting its UCI licence and didn\u2019t take to the start line in a UCI race until April.<\/p>\n