2023-09-18 16:42:00
Jean-François Bourlart is a very busy man. The boss of the Intermarché-Circus-Wanty team is busy building the core of his team for next year, expanding his staff, finalizing his 2024 budget or finding new sponsors. This in a rather difficult economic period. Recently, the Walloon WorldTour team has even had some cash flow problems, salaries have been paid late.
“That’s right,” admits the bored manager. “We had late payments because of some sponsors. We have a very special and unique economic system even at this level. We have over a hundred sponsors and not three big ones who pay for everything in January, March and June. For us, the contributions are spread out over the whole year because our business club (Editor’s note: the Want You Club) is set up like that. We also had a bit of a delay because we are a company that has been growing and expanding for years. The move to the WorldTour in 2021 required us to make significant investments. The WorldTour is expensive but we kept within our means. It’s true, we had a little cash flow delay but we don’t have a budget problem. The future of the team is assured. We will announce the renewal of several sponsors in the coming days.”
A delay which therefore has nothing to do with the recent obligation imposed on betting companies, such as Circus, to step back.
“Not at all,” he said. “Circus will no longer be able to appear in the team name from January 1 but can still do some in other forms. They will stay with us, in another formula, like other partners.”
Three riders from the current team will leave, Sven Erik Byström (Groupama), Laurens Huys (Arkéa) and Niccolo Bonifazio (Corratec), while five others have not yet or will not extend, Rui Costa, Aimé De Gendt, Julius Johansen, Louis Meintjes and Loïc Vliegen.
“Meintjes will stay, it will be official soon, for the other five, it is still under discussion,” he said. “There are still quite a few riders on the market, we are waiting. We are busy putting together next year’s budget. Compared to other years, we are even rather advanced because we already have 24 riders under contract. We stabilize the whole team, almost everyone is under contract, that’s quite a good thing.”
Three new ones will rejuvenate the squad.
“We are focusing on young people, two come from our development team, Francesco Busatto and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk, while the third, Vito Braet arrives from Flanders.”
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