Mark Cavendish’s potential team for 2023 cancels planned press conference
French squad was due to announce plans at a press conference on Wednesday.
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The B&B Hotels – KTM team has cancelled its planned press conference for later this week.
The French squad had been set to unveil riders and sponsors in Paris on Wednesday, a day before the Tour de France presentation is due to take place. No new date for the team presentation has been announced.
Mark Cavendish has been linked with a one-year deal with the team, although the French squad has denied signing the British rider.
On Monday evening, less than 48 hours before the planned press conference, the team sent out a statement.
“Hello everyone, Due to the absence of some of the main stakeholders in the 2023 team’s project, there will be no press conference held by the B&B HOTELS – KTM team this week. We will keep you posted on the date when it will be held. Have a good evening and see you soon.”
Last week the UCI announced that the team had missed the first deadline for submitting all of its paperwork in order to receive a ProTeam license for 2023.
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Reports circulated last week that Cavendish had signed a one-year deal with the French team, with the option of a second. The team quickly denied the reports, telling VeloNews: “We will make no comment on what came out today in Ouest-France, except denying all this information. We will unveil every detail about the team’s future on October 26th.”
The team did state to VeloNews that they had provided the required paperwork needed for the UCI bank guarantee.
Being omitted from the initial list of teams provided by the UCI can be down to a number of factors, not least a lack of administrative paperwork that has not been provided. Although the team has missed the UCI’s initial deadline of October 17 there is still significant time for the B&B management team to successfully complete the UCI’s process.
It’s understood that the team is undergoing a major overhaul with team boss Jerome Pineau reportedly enlisting funds from the City of Paris in order to boost the team’s budget.