The expression cyclisme à deux vitesses - "two-speed cycling" - was used by some French teams as shorthand to allege a tolerance for doping in other nations or teams. The same phrase cou🐻ld well be employed now to highlight the differences between France's stringent fiscal and employment⛎ legislation that concerns teams and their international rivals.

French employment law requires that athletes and staff are registered as company employees and this♑ reportedly cost around 40% more than riders for other teams who work under contrac♕tor status.

The imminent exit from French squads to foreign teams of high-profile French riders such as 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lenny Martinez, Axel Zingle and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valentin Paret-Peintre have put the employment status issue b💙ack in the spotlig🐼ht.

As too, have some increasingly severe and well-publicised financial woes for French 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:WorldTour team 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Arkea-B&B Hotels, which could threaten their existenc🌺e beyond 2025.

"Everything simply costs more," Marc Madiot, Martinez director at Groupamaꦯ-𒁏FDJ, told

"The French teams, these days, are noꩲt in the position to fight with the top squads in terms of recruitment. We can't go on dreaming."

Emmanuel Hubert, manager at Arkéa-B&B, was equally 🌳downhearted and direct about France's financial handicaps and its consequences. 

"It's not like we'♊re bigger assholes th🍰an the other teams [to work for]," he said.  "The only issue at stake here is financial."

Madiot was at pains to point out that he did not dispute the fairneꦿss of the extra tax burden in France. But as he said, the estimated 40% difference in price tags for riders represented a major surcharge when it came to fighting to sign top professionals, who would naturally prefer to sign elsewhere if they can secure a higher contract.

A recent spike in rider salaries across the board has further accentuated the difference and when th❀at rid൩er was a particularly talented and successful one, even more so.

"When it's 40% on a 50,000 eur𝄹os annual salary, it's not an enormous difference," added Cedric Vasseur, the Cofidis team manager told  

"When it comes three million, it's a limiting facto🔜r. The real concern is that top talents no longer come to French teams because tax-wise, they're penalised."

As for heading in the opposi🌃te direction and rider going from France to abroad as has recently been the case of Martínez, Madiot was even more categorical about the one-sided nature of the battle to retain his services f🐷or 2025.

"I couldn't even fight for him," Madiot told L'Équipe.

"The difference for Martínez ꦉis astronomical. After, you have agents who tell you your team is great for forming riders, but a🦋s soon as they're playing their top game - it's time to move on!"

The numbers game

While Madiot 🔜said that "the knives are against our throats," Arkéa-B&B Hotels manager Emmanuel Hubert has warned that the team's situation the financial mid-term is growing critical.

G𓄧iven current financial problems and the lack of economic guarantees for the team beyond 2025, when both main sponsors current sponsorships deal end, Hubert has reportedly let three promising riဣders go.

Vuelta a Españ𝓡;a stage winner in 2021 Clément Champoussin, Italian Vincenzo Albanese and Maeva Squiban from the Arkea-B&B women's team are leaving a year earli꧂er than stipulated in their contact, too, with Albanese linked to a move to EF Education-EasyPost.

"Right now, I can't guarantee them anything beyond December 31 2025," Hubert told when asked about their departure.

𒅌"When they have a contract in their clause allowing them to do so, they have the possibility of committing themselves elsewhere. And  they were very much in demand.

🍸"I'm putting themselves in my place, they have to think about what happens after𝓡 2025. Right now I can't offer them that, I have to adapt myself to the situation. Face up to it."

Yet another rider rumoured to be leavin♉g the squad is British sprinter Dan McLay, whose contract with Arkéa-B&B Hotels ends this season. However, any reason for the 32-year-old's reported departure is not yet fully clear.

Arkéa-B&B Hotels have an adde༺d complication should they still exist beyond 2025: possible World Tour relegation.

In the three-year WorldTour team ranking, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:as reported recently by Cyclingnews, their accumulated points total for 2023 and 2024 puts them in 19th spot. Only those in the top 18 can qualify for a WorldTour team status and Arkéa currently ꦜlag well behind 18th-place🐻d Cofidis, by 2,366 points.