The long-running battle to form part of the 2026 World Tour with the next set of licenses granted seems to be already in full swing. But for TotalEnergies manager Jean-René Bernadeau, unlike many other teams, the question of whether his ProTeam can get promotion to the top league of cycling is not a goal at all.

It is not to say that it is an unrealistic goal. In the latest UCI rankings, Totalenergies is currently ranked fifth best among all pro-tems, after Lotto-Dstny, Israel-Premier Tech, Uno-X and Tudor Pro Cycling. Therefore, the French team could easily be in a position to move on to the world Tour at the end of the next season.

However, Bernadaud said in a lengthy interview with Velofute that instead of focusing on UCI points, his team's 2024 victory with Anthony Turgis on the Tour de France stage was his first victory on the tour with Lillian Carmegian since 2017, and that "you can't do that." It is worth every point you might want." To make it clear, Bernadeau resolutely adds that "we don't see a point" and when it comes to the fight for WorldTour slots, he is "absolutely" interested in joining

When it comes to Bernadeau fighting for a World Tour, there are multiple reasons for his willingness to swim against the tide. However, according to Bernadaud, one of the specific issues is the regulation of creating a hierarchy linked to UCI points, because "it has been modified to specify that only the top 20 riders in each team count points.""

"As a result, a team with 30 riders and a stadiere for when someone on the main team gets sick has a greater chance, mathematically saying [to be ranking up]. In our case, we lost that particular race even before it started," he said.

Bernadeau further expressed concern that several teams "bought their way to their place on the World Tour" through signings. Unlike TotalEnergies, this was a team that invested heavily in its own amateurs and U23 infrastructure and projects to prepare young riders for professional races.

"There's all this chatter about buying contracts, buying riders, and "buying their place" teams at WorldTour. I don't want the word "buy" to form part of our vocabulary," he argued.

"We need to form riders, recruit them and develop projects. Our team has a kind of project based on the school of learning sports in the town of La Roche-sur-Yon, with Vendée U [Amateur Cycling

but Bernadaud believes that TotalEnergies/Vendéeu infrastructure is a global leader in the sport of top authorities.

"Where do we fit into UCI's plans?" We are important for them.He asked rhetorically. "We can't change, we have sponsors supporting us, we have up-and-coming riders, and we can not only get a real sense of fun about it, but we can get a real sense of it.

His team is one of the longest-surviving teams in cycling 1, but Bernadaud argued that the relatively recent emergence of new professional teams like Tudor and Uno-X is a "raison d'être" of the sport and shows that new projects in the sport are viable. "The World Tour is not heading into a closed circuit with only 18 teams.He asked rhetorically. "I don't think the 2000 Bernardo [team] existed today.

"The system we have controls the race organizers, the actors who are the team, and all of that, and has a vision of what our sport will be in the next few years.

"I'm lucky enough to have a very strong sponsor, but if they demand that I win the tour tomorrow, I'll be able to However, it will feel tasteless and colorless, we point and top power. So I'm not doing it and neither is my sponsor. "

Rather than overly focusing on results, Bernadeau recognized that he was lucky to have lived in the part of France, Vendée, where he was able to create a lot of local social projects for young riders across the region, promoting the sport in general and bringing young talent for professional teams.

"There are very simple things that can be done and we rely on the authorities of Vendée to execute them," he told Velofute. "And we're going to do them: a bicycle loan scheme, a kind of closed-circuit race...

"At the same time, professional teams must recognize that they have not been expelled At the moment, when a rider becomes a professional, some clubs that formed that rider receive a call with recognition about what they have done and the investments they have made they get nothing."

Maintaining the fluidity of communication between teams at different levels and supporting the construction of social projects to promote bike racing in Vande 1 is one of Bernadeau's goals. 

On the other side of the racing spectrum with his professional team, TotalEnergies, Bernadaud's goal extends to doing what he can at the Tour de France. The team's tour had a remarkable success in 2024, he said, winning the Trois at the Pavé stage on the stage of Turgis was 1 Hypo of some

"We did a good race this year, we had many young riders in the mix, we had a lot of young riders in the mix, we had a lot of young riders in the mix." I think Mathéo Vercher did an epic tour," he told u23 Lai, "We were definitely at a good level."