UNLIKE OTHER TEAMS WE MAKE OUR CHAMPIONS OURSELVES NOT WITH OUR CHEQUE BOOK
In stepping up to the WorldTour, Europcar are facing stiffer competition without a significantly increased budget. Can they apply Sky-like marginal gains on the cheap?
Moving up to the WorldTour hasn’t increased their budget considerably. In 2012, they had €6.7m, compared to Team Sky’s budget of just under €26.5m for the same period
Modern day cycling is a multi-million business, regardless of the currency you’re spending. Global travel, riders and staff, equipment… it all mounts up. Yet even though budgets are part of the selection criteria for ProTeams, there is still a huge disparity within the division between ‘ haves’ such as Sky and ‘ have nots’. Procycling visited Team Europcar’s pre- season training camp in Calpe, Spain, to see how the team’s finding ways to be competitive while on a relative shoestring.
It’s mid-morning on a sunny winter’s day and 13 of Europcar’s riders joke with their three sports directors about the five-hour ride they have planned. It’s a far cry from the Majorca hotel that Team Sky block books for three months every winter along with an open invite to all their riders. Team Europcar’s mechanic truck has even been replaced by the white van of Team Vendée U, their amateur feeder team. It’s just one of many cost savings that make the training camp possible at all.
This year sees Europcar move up to the rank of Pro Team for the first time, no mean feat for such a small outfit. Their history goes back to 1985 and System U but it wasn’t until 1995 that Jean- René Bernaudeau took over as general manager, having ended his own racing career. At the turn of the century, the seeds of the current incarnation were sown with the Bonjour name and while the sponsors have changed – Brioches La Boulangere in 2003, Bouygues Telecom in 2005, BBOX in 2009 and Europcar from 2010 – the team’s ethos has remained the same.
Being able to finance racing at the top flight is one of the key concerns for Bernaudeau. In mid-2013, Europcar’s continuing finance looked doubtful but that changed after a season that saw the team top the Europe Tour rankings. “2013 was a record season for us,” says Bernaudeau. “We knew we were strong when our neo-pro Bryan Coquard picked up our first victory right at the start of the season. This took the pressure off us and set us on course to 26 victories from 12 different riders, a record for us.” The team finished in the top 18 teams in the world, securing their invitation to the top division in 2014.
Yet moving up to the WorldTour hasn’t increased their budget considerably. In 2012, the team had € 6.7m, compared to Team Sky’s budget of just under € 26.5m for the same period. Yet surprisingly, having around a quarter of a direct rival’s budget doesn’t faze Bernaudeau at all.
“Unlike other teams we make our champions ourselves, not with our cheque book,” he says. “It is nice to be back in the WorldTour and riding all three grand tours without selling our soul. I have worked to build a set- up that allows us to take riders from our feeder team, Vendée U, and help them step up into the top ranks, surrounded by our family-like team.”
Nurturing talent and moulding champions are what Bernaudeau likes to do best. One of the key structures he put in place was the amateur feeder team, Vendée U, a class 1 elite team based at the same service course as Europcar. Set up in 1991, it has seen more than 50 riders move into the professional ranks and is the key to how Europcar, on such a meagre budget, has such a talented group of riders. Mirroring the main team’s structure also means that younger riders are able to step up to the pro team with ease. Voeckler, Coquard, Hammond, Wegelius, Turgot and Chavanel are all former Vendée U riders.
Says Bernaudeau: “Our Vendée U team makes a huge difference. It is why we were quick to bring back Jimmy Engoulvent and Fabrice Jeandesboz, who were both developed in the Vendée U set- up. Romain Guillemois will make the step up next
season as well. By 2015, we will see an explosion of talent.”
Half of the current 2014 roster used to ride for Vendée U. “The key for me, when looking for both riders and team staff, is finding people who fit in with our mentality. We are serious, working hard to give our best, but we are also relaxed. I know that by not putting pressure on our riders, but helping them in a relaxed atmosphere, they will give their best. If they come first or not it does not matter to me – I am happy as long as they have given their best. The bigger teams may have more star riders but our riders have the morale to give more, riding their own race and not waiting for the others.
“Thomas Voeckler embodies this team spirit. He is super professional, watching everything that he does, yet he rides with his heart. For example, last season at the Giro de Lombardia, I know that had another rider gone with him when he attacked, he would have ridden to the win he deserved.”
Forced to be creative with his limited budget, Bernaudeau has also looked to developing nations to find his next generation of talent. Europcar might be a Francophone team but it contains riders from much further afield.
“When I was a professional there were very few, if any, non-white riders in the peloton,” Bernaudeau notes. “Typically teams do not look outside of the normal talent pool for their riders, but developing nations have a lot to offer. I pick riders on their ability. Riders from Africa or the Caribbean are genetically talented but lack support, so we invest in them to give them all they need to fulfil their talent.
“My most emotional moment this year was Natnael Berhane’s victory in the Tour of Turkey. When I saw him leading the way in our green jersey on the difficult final climb in stage 3, I felt really warm inside.”
Finding talent is one thing but supplying it with the support necessary to compete at the top level is another. With the bigger teams always breathing down the neck of Europcar, flashing their chequebooks and trying to tempt their top riders away, how does Bernaudeau keep the talent he has worked so hard to nurture? “Many have
“We are serious and hard working but we are also relaxed. I know that by not putting pressure on our riders, but helping them in a relaxed atmosphere, they will give their best”
looked at Team Europcar and thought that we are a backward, typically French team. These people are surprised when they see our set- up and what we provide for our riders. Sure, we are limited by our budget but working closely with our partners we still have things like our Espace Nutrition that even Team Sky have not got!”
One thing you can’t fail to notice when you see Europcar at a race, and something which belies their budget, is the sheer amount of resources that they have at their disposal. They have the cars, mechanic’s truck and team bus typical to every team. But for around 120 days each season, they also have the Espace Nutrition truck. The idea of having a team chef and mobile kitchen isn’t revolutionary in the peloton – many of the top teams do the same. But what sets Europcar’s Espace Nutrition apart is that it also contains a dining area.
Within this relaxed atmosphere, riders can eat in peace. Just behind the dining area is the fully equipped kitchen where three chefs provide daily nutrition under the guidelines of Doctor Patrick- Pierre Sabatie. Chef Luc Bousseau explains: “The aims of the Espace Nutrition are nutrition, recovery, pleasure and food hygiene. Every day we prepare specific meals – not only to the demands that a day’s riding puts on the rider – but specific to the riders themselves. We work to the gram,
“One ethic that is key at both Vendée U and Europcar is that the rider’s mentality and morale are our first thought”
making sure that the meals are the best for the riders whilst also making sure they give them pleasure to eat.
“If one rider needs to lose weight, they get less. Everything is calculated and has been very successful. The riders are monitored during the major racing periods to make sure that they maintain a good weight healthily. After every Tour de France, our riders are the same weight they were when they started the race, as well as being perfectly healthy in terms of their nutrition levels. This is not an easy thing to achieve, given the demands of the event, but under the guidance of Doctor Sabatie we have the right information to proceed.”
It can’t be cheap bankrolling one more vehicle and staffing it, so how can a team on such a modest budget afford a rolling restaurant even before the likes of Team Sky? Simple – Espace Nutrition is not in fact paid for by the team but supplied by their sponsor, French produce brand Fleury Michon.
If providing for your riders enables them to succeed and this success deserves rewarding then how does a team on a budget keep hold of the likes of Voeckler, Rolland and Coquard when they could earn more elsewhere? A new addition to the team staff, Benoît Génauzeau, is no stranger to the Europcar way of functioning. He explains: “It is our team’s environment that helps us keep riders once they have signed with us. We are not Anglophones and naturally have to adopt a way of functioning that suits the Francophones. It would be nice to work like the English speaking teams, setting a line that everyone is expected to toe, but that does not work with our riders. We have to round certain edges to get the best out of them.
“One ethic that is key at both Vendée U and Europcar is that the rider’s mentality and morale are our first thought. Often a rider may have the physical ability but has yet to fulfil what we believe they are capable of because they are blocked by their heads. So we make sure that we are there when they are having troubles, to counsel them and help them through it. We maintain a relaxed atmosphere which we feel is best to fulfil their potential.”
As the riders get back from their training ride, they seem as unfazed by their upcoming WorldTour calendar as the Spanish locals are to see another of the world’s top teams at this winter training hotspot. Génauzeau concludes in a relaxed and confident manner: “Having three grand tours on our programme will see us using all of our riders, which will help them. Even though the majority of them are young – 15 of our riders born in 1987 or later – we know that under the leadership of Jean- Réne we can get the best out of them.”
Despite their tight budget, Team Europcar operates in a way that keeps them competitive. Bernaudeau concludes: “A limited budget ultimately does not affect us. We have many things that even the richest teams don’t,” he chuckles. “Though sometimes I do dream about what I could do with a budget the same as Team Sky.”