Audrey Cordon-Lago, one of the riders left adrift by the collapse of the 2023 Team Project, which was to have come out of the B&B Hotels-KTM team run by brothers Jerome and Sebastien Pinault, has new details about the deception that plagued the riders until December. She shared new details about the deception that plagued the riders until December.

In an exclusive interview with Le Télégramme (opens in new tab), Cordon-Lago details the team management that led the riders to believe for months that the project would go ahead, even though all signs pointed in the opposite direction.

"It's crazy. I still can't believe it," Cordon-Lago told Le Télégramme. 'For two months we were swept away, for two months we were swept away. If it's a lie, it's on an elite level. [Is it a vicious circle, a spiral, a descent into hell where you lie once, lie a second time, lie a third time, and eventually convince yourself of your own lies?

The uncertainty surrounding her future was "a new test" after the French champion suffered a stroke and missed the UCI Road World Championships in September.

"I believed in this project so much and I put my DNA into it. People would think I was a complete idiot, but I was confident that it would work until December 6," Cordon-Lagotte said. 'I even yelled at people who said it wouldn't work. I feel guilty for having put so many people on the road in this wreck."

[10 [The 33-year-old detailed his journey from the excitement of building a new team to the disappointment when it suddenly went up in flames.

"In the spring I met the Pinault brothers at Tewa. In the spring I met the Pinault brothers at Tewa. 'I knew the secret, I felt confident, and I embraced this project like never before. At the same time as preparing for the Tour de France, I recruited riders and staff with a friend and future coach."

She said there was also talk of her succeeding Sébastien Pinault as general manager after his retirement in 2024. Details began to come together over the summer, and by the end of October, the players were to convene in Paris to select Mark Cavendish for the men's team and reveal the women's roster.

In the meantime, Cordon-Lago said she heard less and less news from the Pinault brothers. When I asked, Sébastien Pinault reassured me, "In mid-October we were summoned to Paris for interviews and fitting-outs with the management. It was then that I was told that the team's co-sponsor was close to signing a contract. Why should I doubt it?

And when the scheduled team presentation was abruptly cancelled on October 24, the first alarm bells rang. Again, she said, Sébastien Pinault continued to reassure her that nothing was wrong.

"According to him, it was just a happening. "I spoke with Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France presentation on October 27. He said he had no news and was starting to get scared."

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She said she continued to be told until the team's dissolution was officially announced on December 7.

"On November 30, I reiterated my concerns to Sébastien Pinault; on December 2, Jérôme Pinault told me that the entire project would not be completed and that ultimately only the women's team could be saved."

"Three days later (December 5 - Editor), the Pinault brothers had a B&B Hotel's directors in a meeting, and in the evening they told me by videotape that it had taken only 10 minutes to persuade them and that this time it would be done for sure."

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At the time, the team missed the deadline to register for a UCI professional team license, but the riders wanted the men's team to remain intact, perhaps as a continental team.

One day later, the situation changed. When I called management, it was clear that the team had no future; I learned that B&B Hotels no longer wanted to continue and had told the Pinault brothers that morning."

"I am extremely disappointed and very saddened. It casts doubt on the trust I can give people." I have become a bit of an introvert, which is not like me. This story has affected me greatly; it was a new challenge for me after my stroke in September."

She and her partner Vincent Lagotte, a former mechanic for the B&B Hotels-KTM team, have a more secure future now that they have joined the new Zaaf cycling team in Spain.

"Jérôme has changed my husband's professional life and kept us alive for five years. And we haven't forgotten how he built a team that is unmatched in cycling, a real family and group of friends." But over the past few weeks, this lack of clarity and integrity has been hard to comprehend. It's made everything go up in smoke

"I feel more pity. Trust was lost. They tried to save a project that was no longer a project. In the end, we all felt like we were being held hostage."

"I don't understand. I will never understand that they will not take responsibility or look for other culprits.

"What hurts me deeply is hearing from X and Y that they are trying to blame me, that it's basically my fault that the team didn't work out. In other words, they are blaming me for what I told the media - the first and last thing I will tell them today - and for not moving forward with the project after waiting until the last day. All of these things stick in my mind and disgust me. I think it's despicable. But the bicycle wheels turn."

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