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problems, spooked sponsors and broken dreamsImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Riders and teams frequently face
financial hardship in the professional pelotonByMatt WarwickBBC Sport senior journalistPublished9 August 2026Team cars
shuttle from side to side on damp roads through picturesque Yorkshire villages as the race convoy tries to keep up with
a marauding peloton.Under-pressure sporting directors at the 2025 Tour of Britain Women are shouting tactics over the
radio with one hand while steering their vehicles with the other.Then, a concertina, in which Hess Cycling's team
car slams on the brakes and hits the back of another team's vehicle, making that uneasy sound of one
car colliding with another.It was a fitting metaphor for a team who shot forward too quickly and paid the
price.Within two months of that incident, the Hess team who had aimed so high when launching two years earlier had
collapsed."We got promised the world - a big elaborate dream," says a former Hess rider, who does not want
to be identified through fear of being judged as a troublemaker in the peloton. "It seems like it was created
for one person, not for the benefit of riders. You've got to wonder why someone puts their name on the
jersey."Gone were the aims to have one of the biggest budgets on the ever-growing UCI Women's World Tour,
putting Britain back on the cycling map with a world-beating team.Replaced by riders and team members who felt let down
and remain - one year after the team's demise - out of pocket. Quite a lot out of pocket. One team supplier we
spoke to is owed more than £50,000 - confirmed in documents seen by the BBC.With one year to go until the Tour de
France and Tour de France Femmes roll into the UK to inspire another generation of cyclists, BBC Sport asks: Why is it
so hard to run a cycling team?The Hess team's demise centres around the loss of their title sponsor after they
pulled out in response to media coverage of a civil claim against "one of the team's directors" over a
separate business venture.But were the team's hands tied from the very beginning by a financial model very
different to sports such as football and Formula 1?What was supposed to happen? Back in October 2023, in a Manchester
coffee house, Swiss team co-owner Rolf Hess passionately laid out plans for a British team to win the biggest races in
women's cycling, including the Tour de France Femmes.There would be good money, and a fresh, athlete-led approach
to finding sponsors and generating "riders as brands" to amplify both rider and team - all led by bosses with
an eye for detail and heart in the project.British talent would be invested in, races would be won and a new world order
- in a sport currently dominated by Dutch teams and riders - achieved.Team Sky made it look easy a decade prior in
men's cycling. How hard could it be?"Our first-year budget is 750,000 euros, with no sponsor at
all," said Hess at the time."This is entrepreneurship - we do it ourselves. We didn't buy a
team - we are building a team." He added. "We feel we need to take care of our riders and invite them to
take up studies while they race and create their own personalised consumer product."With the first instalment of
750,000 euros already pledged, the team's budget was intended to be five times that when they made the World Tour
by 2025.Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, The team lost a title sponsor mid-seasonWhat actually happened?"We
were lucky if we even saw half a million [as a team], I'd say," says the former rider. "There was even no
money at team camps and other stuff they didn't pay for. There were big bills."I know there were other
riders still owed money - a lot of it."It all began with some modest results, but a 15th place at the
2025 Women's Tour of Britain was about as good as it got in the bigger races, and the team never made it above
'continental' level, which is the third tier of women's road cycling.The rider says: "There were
reasonable money issues from the start where riders were paid late
or wouldn't get reimbursements. "It pushes you into [bad] situations."And
it wasn't just the riders - business partners who supplied the team with equipment are owed a lot of money.One
mechanic - who asked to remain anonymous through fear of having any future employment jeopardised - claims to have had
to find hire vehicles a day before a race upon landing at an airport to discover nothing had been arranged. As well as
trying to prepare bikes and equipment - while finding his own way to pay for it.Money was promised to be settled at
various stated points since the team's demise in August last year, but the latest statement from
Hess says "negotiations regarding funding is ongoing despite headwinds and a difficult market
situation".Some have been waiting to be paid for a year.In a statement Hess said:
"Unfortunately, [our] sponsor withdrew from the partnership at the beginning of 2025. "Hess Sports Group
continued to fund operations, contributing more than £200,000 over the course of summer 2025, while working to enable
the team to compete under a financially sustainable model. "This shortfall in funding had a material impact on
our operations, but allowed our athletes to compete while we worked on securing the team's future."Hess
Sports Group remains committed to repaying all its creditors."At the outset, Hess the man was full of passion for
the project, and praise for the athletes.But there were plenty of other distractions given the Hess Group includes oil
and gas producer Carraigmore, water purification companies and make-up businesses.The civil claim initiated
against a group which includes the director of the cycling team was in Spain, over accusations of misleading investors
for the delayed floating of a water company on the stock market. The allegations are denied.Norbert Stocker, a member of
the cycling team's management, told BBC Sport the loss of a title sponsor occurred after the sponsor was spooked
over the allegations relating to the water company."To influence the commercial negotiations with equity investors
in a separate company, the cycling team was targeted to exert pressure, even though it is wholly unrelated," he
said."Although all the claims are unfounded, media speculation destabilised the relationship with the cycling
team's core external sponsor."Is women's cycling broken?Is women's cycling broken? Or, more to the
point, is cycling broken? Unlike most other sports, teams do not see a penny of TV rights money - that goes to race
organisers, such as ASO, who bring fans the Tour de France, among many other races.This puts huge financial pressure on
teams from the start, as they must find several sponsors for their income, and cover ever more costly ways to gain an
advantage against rivals in performance and technology. Let alone consider paying a team of more than 30 riders and
several staff.If a team loses their sponsor, then their funding has gone. There's virtually nothing else to fall
back on.In the past two years alone about 10 British-based men's or women's 'continental' teams have
folded.Many in the sport believe ASO's market dominance holds the key to a more financially stable future in road
cycling, by being part of wider negotiations with teams to allow them a slice of global TV rights revenue which would
help the sport grow commercially to benefit all parties.The 'one cycling' idea, as it has been known for some
years, has been pushed by many teams and their leaders, but has never come to fruition, partly thanks to a lack of
interest from the biggest earners in the sport.In January this year cycling's world governing body the UCI launched
a consultation period for men's and women's cycling on "key topics, including the economic model, the
calendar and participation rules, fan engagement, safety and the credibility of sporting results".Image source,
Getty ImagesImage caption, Without TV rights money, teams struggle in the longer term. The winner of the Tour de France
Femmes receives a tenth of that of the men's race'Riders have too high expectations'Nevertheless, riders
and other team associates believe Hess should have done a better job of looking after those who worked for it, despite a
difficult working landscape.Some of the money owed was also paid back by the team through a bank guarantee which teams
are obliged to supply to British Cycling upon registration."Riders have too high expectations," says Hess
sporting director Pirmin Lang, a former rider on the men's World Tour."It's more about the fact
that women's cycling has developed too quickly. Teams try to set up, but can't keep up. Mostly of a
financial nature."The top [World Tour] is getting bigger and better, but the [development] area is
missing. And that is the base of the long-term structure of cycling. Not just the pro sport, also the economy."The
anonymous former Hess rider concludes: "I'll stand up for myself and actually say things and maybe that
doesn't help my career in the long run, but I've worked a normal job and a normal workplace and I
understand your rights as an employee..."I think the thing that was really getting to me in the
team was there's nothing that protects you, so you keep quiet."Sometimes girls paid [to get to
races] - and that's because they're scared for their career, because what if this is their
breakthrough race? And it all gets better after that?"You're always 'looking for the
rainbow'... so the team holds all the power over you because you're desperate and want the
dream."The team had a duty to us as riders and they failed."Who is paid what in women's
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