The prolonged battle to form part of the WorldTour in 2026 when the next set of licences are granted is already in full swing, it seems. But for TotalEnergies Manager Jean-René Bernadeau, unlike many other teams, the question of whether his ProTeam can get a promotion to cycling's top league is not an objective at all.
That's not to say it's an unrealistic goal, though. As of the latest UCI ranking, TotalEnergies are currently placed fifth best of all the ProTeams, behind Lotto-Dstny, Israel-Premier Tech, Uno-X, and Tudor Pro Cycling. The French squad could therefore easily be in a position to move to the WorldTour at the end of the following season.
However, in a lengthy interview with Velofute, Bernadeau argued that rather than concentrate on UCI points, his team's 2024 Tour de France stage victory with Anthony Turgis, their first in the Tour since 2017 with Lilian Calmejane, was "worth all the points you could possibly wish for".
Just to make it crystal clear, Bernadeau then added categorically, "we don't look at points", and said that when it came to a fight for a WorldTour slot, he was "absolutely not" interested in taking part.
There are multiple reasons for Bernadeau's willingness to swim against the tide when it comes to fighting for the WorldTour. But according to Bernadeau, one particular issue is a regulation that "creates a hierarchy linked to UCI points, because it was changed to specify that only the top 20 riders in each team would have their points counted."
"As a result, teams with 30 riders plus a stagière for when somebody on the main squad gets ill, have a greater chance, mathematically speaking [of being higher up the ranking]. In our case, we've lost that particular race even before it's started," he said.
Bernadeau additionally expressed concern that some teams "bought their way into their place into the WorldTour" via signings. This was unlike TotalEnergies, a team that invested heavily in its own amateur and U23 infrastructures and projects to bring on younger riders and prepare them for professional racing.
"There's all this chatter about buying contracts, buying riders, about teams that 'buy their place' in the WorldTour. I don't want the word 'buy' to form part of our vocabulary," he insisted.
"We need to form riders, recruit them and develop a project. Our team has that kind of project based on schools with sports studies in the town of La Roche sur Yon, with the Vendée U [amateur cycling team] and then the pro squad."
However, Bernadeau hinted strongly that the TotalEnergies/Vendée U infrastructure was a species in danger of falling out of the top authority's global vision of the sport.
"Where do we fit in the UCI's plan? Are we important for them?" he asked rhetorically. "We can't change, we have a sponsor who backs us, we have up-and-coming riders and we get a real sense of enjoyment about it all, as well."
Although his team is one of the longest surviving in cycling, Bernadeau argued that the relatively recent emergence of new pro squads like Tudor and Uno-X was the 'raison d'être' of sport, showing that new projects in the sport were viable.
"Isn't the WorldTour heading towards being a closed circuit with just 18 teams?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't think the Bernadeau [team] of 2000 could have existed today.
"The system we have brings together race organisers, the actors who are the teams and one authority, the UCI, which has to control over all of that, and to have a vision of what our sport will be in the years to come.
"I'm lucky enough to have a very powerful sponsor, but if tomorrow they demanded that I win the Tour, we could maybe do it by amassing points and top power outputs. But it would feel insipid, colourless. So I'm not doing it, and neither is my sponsor."
More than just results
Rather than overly focus on results, Bernadeau recognised he was lucky to live in a part of France, the Vendée, which allowed him to create plenty of local social projects for young riders across the region, both promote sport in general and bring on younger talents for the pro teams.
"There are very simple things that can be done and which depend on the Vendée's authorities to carry them out," he told Velofute. "And we're going to do them: things like bike loan schemes, closed-circuit races…
"At the same time, the professional teams need to realise they aren't outcasts. At the moment, when a rider turns pro some clubs who formed that rider don't even get a phone call in recognition for what they've done, the investment they've made. They don't get anything."
Keeping the lines of communication fluid between the teams at different levels, as well as helping build social projects to promote bike racing in the Vendée is one of Bernadeau's goals.
At the other end of the racing spectrum with his professional team, TotalEnergies, Bernadeau's goals extend to doing as well as possible in the Tour de France. The team's Tour was a notable success in 2024, he said, with Turgis' stage win on the pavé stage to Troyes just one high point of several.
"We did a good race this year, we had lots of young riders in the mix, I think that Mathéo Vercher did a magnificent Tour," he said about the U23 rider in his first-ever Tour, getting into three breaks and placing second in one stage. "We were definitely at a good level."
