Longstanding French team St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 is set to end its men's squad in order to focus fully on their women's ProTeam from 2027.
The men's team has existed as an amateur outfit for several decades, becoming one of the best clubs in the 1980s and turning professional in 1994, riding the Tour de France in the late 90s and early 2000s as BigMat–Auber 93. Riders who have come through their ranks include Tony Gallopin, Steve Chainel and Thierry Gouvenou.
Most recently, they have been registered at Continental level, not eligible for the Tour but regulars on the European circuit.
The women's club team formed in 2020, only turning professional in 2022 and stepping up to ProTeam level just this year, but despite the women's team's relative youth, the team owners are looking to women's cycling for the next phase of their development.
"To meet the challenges of cycling today and tomorrow, the club will focus all of its professional resources from 2027 onward on a single professional team: the women’s team, currently registered as a UCI Women’s ProTeam," a team press release on Tuesday read.
"[The club] has diversified, it has developed talent, it has achieved success. However, in a professional cycling landscape undergoing significant change, it must adapt. Cycling today raises its standards a little higher each day. The successes of yesterday are no longer possible with today's conditions. They seem completely unattainable in the future without profound transformation."
The men's team closure marks a significant end for the long-running outfit that has been an important figure in cycling in northern France, but also represents the shifting of strategies and opportunities with the growth of the women's sport.
The men's team has not been at the Tour since 2001, whilst the women's team has been invited to every Tour de France Femmes since its inception – the same year they became a UCI team – and is set to continue that streak with their new ProTeam status.
The women's squad has also been able to make higher-profile signings in recent years, diversifying and internationalising their roster, most recently welcoming Canadian champion and former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson, who is their team leader in 2026.
With Jackson's arrival, the team also welcomed a new sponsor in Premier Tech for 2026.
With the growth of the women's Tour de France, there are certainly more opportunities for women's teams in France, but the increasing budgets and resources also mean that teams must spend more to keep up, which is certainly part of the driving force between St Michel's decision to consolidate.
"I am deeply attached to the history of our team and our club. I joined the organization in 1989 and, through different roles, I have witnessed the evolution of both the structure and cycling as a whole. I fully understand the significance of the decision we are making for the future," club CEO Stephan Gaudry said.
"We are closing a chapter spanning several decades, during which we competed in the world’s greatest races, won a stage of the Tour de France, and had the honor of wearing the French national champion’s jersey."
Though the professional project going forward will be focused on women's cycling, the club underlined their commitment to club-level development.
"Our journey is not over — it continues as it always has: with courage, humility, and ambition. Refocusing our professional activity on women’s cycling will allow us to approach the future with greater resources, renewed energy, and stronger ambitions," Gaudry concluded.
"This new chapter is part of an ambitious roadmap designed to make the UCI Women’s ProTeam the driving force of a club whose amateur structure will also be reorganized around objectives of development, education, and transmission."
