{"id":93179,"date":"2025-08-26T04:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T04:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/93179\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T04:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T04:41:09","slug":"british-womens-pro-cycling-team-collapses-mid-season-following-fraud-allegations-unpaid-wages-and-race-licence-issues-as-bosses-blame-increasing-competition-and-huge-budg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/93179\/","title":{"rendered":"British women\u2019s pro cycling team collapses mid-season following fraud allegations, unpaid wages, and race licence issues, as bosses blame increasing competition and \u201chuge\u201d budget increases"},"content":{"rendered":"

British women\u2019s Continental team Hess Cycling, which has been mired in controversy this year following reports of missed payments for riders, an early season exodus, race licence delays, cancelled kit deals, and fraud allegations concerning its owner, has ceased operating with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

The squad\u2019s collapse, announced on Monday, has been blamed by Hess Cycling\u2019s management on the \u201chuge increases in annual budgets\u201d within women\u2019s cycling in recent years, driven by the sport\u2019s \u201cincreasingly competitive\u201d landscape.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2023 as a Luxembourg-based team by Swiss private equity group owner Rolf Hess, the squad applied for a British Continental licence the following year, with the stated aim of becoming Britain\u2019s leading professional women\u2019s cycling team<\/a> and taking to the start line of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes.<\/p>\n

Announcing that he wanted to create a team capable of \u201cconsistently\u201d winning the Tour, Hess said at the time that he hoped to increase the squad\u2019s budget from \u00a3650,000 a year to \u00a34.3 million within five years.<\/p>\n

\"MaeveMaeve Plouffe of Hess Cycling before stage two of the 2025 Tour of Britain Women in Hartlepool (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Hess also encouraged the team\u2019s riders to promote the squad on social media as \u2018influencers\u2019, even suggesting that riders who, for example, help promote his group\u2019s perfume company could be \u201cgiven a chance to create her own product and she will be remunerated on a permanent basis, post career\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I think we are saying which is unique until other teams start doing it, which I hope happens. I\u2019m not prepared to be the owner of a team who does exactly same as all the others,\u201d the businessman, whose Hess Sports Group also has a majority stake in Irish Women\u2019s Premier Division side Waterford FC, said in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to see that language, that signature, in the way we conduct the business. My time would be wasted unless we have a unique way of doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since gaining its British licence, Hess Cycling has secured a number of decent results in the UK and Europe, with Alice McWilliam winning this year\u2019s East Cleveland Classic, while Grace Lister finished 15th overall at June\u2019s Tour of Britain Women.<\/p>\n

\"AliceAlice McWilliam wins 2025 East Cleveland Classic (credit: Olly Hassell\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

However, the squad has also been plagued by financial and administrative issues in recent months. As reported by ProCyclingUK<\/a> earlier this year, a delay in obtaining its racing licence meant that the team was unable to take part in a UCI race until April.<\/p>\n

In January, it emerged that Hess himself was being investigated in Spain due to allegations of fraud concerning his company United Global Water Holdings Limited.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, payments due to riders and staff for December 2024 were not fulfilled until February, while riders complained that travel expenses were also frequently paid late, leading to some of the team\u2019s members refusing to pay for their own travel, fearing they would not be reimbursed.<\/p>\n

Sources close to kit supplier Cuore also claimed they hadn\u2019t been paid, leading to the clothing brand\u2019s deal with Hess Cycling being cancelled earlier this year.<\/p>\n

And in March, things came to a head when five riders left the squad, including Kate Richardson (who went on to win the Tour de Feminin in May for Handsling Alba), Irish cyclocross champion Esther Wong, Elisabeth Ebras, Natalie Quinn, and Laura Lizette Sander.<\/p>\n

\"GraceGrace Lister climbs Saltburn Bank, stage two, 2025 Tour of Britain Women (credit: Olly Hassell\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Announcing the team\u2019s demise on Monday, Hess and co-managers Norbert Stocker and Pirmin Lang (the former IAM Cycling pro who confessed to doping in 2020 after being implicated in Operation Aderlass) claimed that the growing standard of women\u2019s cycling had made Hess Cycling\u2019s financial situation unsustainable without a merger with a larger sponsor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very happy with our achievements over the past three years,\u201d the statement said. \u201cHaving said that, we also realised that in 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to be driven by our deep commitment to sport, community, and especially the empowerment of female athletes.<\/p>\n

\"ImogenImogen Wolff and Grace Lister, 2025 British road race championships (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly proud of what Hess Cycling Team has achieved. We came from nothing and were ranked as the top British Female Cycling Team, something that we are very proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grateful for your unwavering support throughout this journey. Your cooperation has been instrumental in helping us build a team that inspired, competed and represented our shared values with integrity and passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this chapter closes our dedication to sport remains strong. Hess Sports Group and the broader Hess Enterprises family will continue to support female teams and individual athletes in cycling and other sports through sponsorships and strategic partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British women\u2019s Continental team Hess Cycling, which has been mired in controversy this year following reports of missed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-93179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}