Money problems force Hess Cycling to fold after 2025 Tour of Britain Women incident

Hess Cycling, which featured in the 2025 Tour of Britain Women, collapsed within two months of a team-car collision on damp Yorkshire roads during that race after its title sponsor withdrew following media coverage of a civil claim linked to one of the team's directors. The sponsor pull-out and subsequent funding shortfall left riders, staff and suppliers unpaid and the team's future untenable.

The project was launched two years earlier with ambitious aims and public reassurances from co-owner Rolf Hess, who in October 2023 in a Manchester coffee house set out plans for a British team to compete at the highest level and to develop riders as brands. Hess told reporters: "Our first-year budget is 750,000 euros, with no sponsor at all," and added: "This is entrepreneurship - we do it ourselves. We didn't buy a team - we are building a team." The initial instalment was intended as a foundation for a budget he expected to grow fivefold if the team reached the World Tour by 2025.

Documents seen by BBC Sport show at least one team supplier is owed more than £50,000, and several creditors say they have been waiting up to a year to be paid. In a statement, Hess acknowledged the sponsor withdrawal: "Unfortunately, [our] sponsor withdrew from the partnership at the beginning of 2025." The company added: "Hess Sports Group continued to fund operations, contributing more than £200,000 over the course of summer 2025, while working to enable the team to compete under a financially sustainable model." The statement said the funding shortfall "had a material impact on our operations" and that "Hess Sports Group remains committed to repaying all its creditors."

Former riders and anonymous staff describe persistent payment delays and logistical failures while the team operated at continental level. A former Hess rider said: "We got promised the world - a big elaborate dream" and added: "We were lucky if we even saw half a million [as a team], I'd say." The rider also reported that "there was even no money at team camps and other stuff they didn't pay for" and that late payments and missing reimbursements "pushes you into [bad] situations." An anonymous mechanic says he had to find hire vehicles on arrival at an airport because nothing had been arranged.

On the road, the team recorded only modest results in higher-profile events, with a 15th place at the 2025 Women's Tour of Britain cited as about as good as it got in the bigger races. The squad never progressed above 'continental' status, the third tier of women's road cycling, during its existence.

Several people within the sport point to structural funding problems that affect teams across cycling: teams receive none of the TV rights revenue, which goes to race organisers such as ASO, leaving squads heavily dependent on sponsorship. The article notes that "in the past two years alone about 10 British-based men's or women's 'continental' teams have folded" and that the UCI in January launched a consultation covering "key topics, including the economic model, the calendar and participation rules, fan engagement, safety and the credibility of sporting results." The piece also states that "The winner of the Tour de France Femmes receives a tenth of that of the men's race."

Members of Hess's management defended their position. Norbert Stocker said: "To influence the commercial negotiations with equity investors in a separate company, the cycling team was targeted to exert pressure, even though it is wholly unrelated," and argued media speculation affected the sponsor relationship. Sporting director Pirmin Lang, a former rider on the men's World Tour, said: "Riders have too high expectations," and added: "It's more about the fact that women's cycling has developed too quickly. Teams try to set up, but can't keep up. Mostly of a financial nature. The top [World Tour] is getting bigger and better, but the [development] area is missing. And that is the base of the long-term structure of cycling. Not just the pro sport, also the economy."

Several former Hess staff remain publicly critical. An anonymous former rider said: "I'll stand up for myself and actually say things and maybe that doesn't help my career in the long run, but I've worked a normal job and a normal workplace and I understand your rights as an employee... "I think the thing that was really getting to me in the team was there's nothing that protects you, so you keep quiet." Some debts were met via the bank guarantee teams must supply to British Cycling on registration, but other payments remain outstanding.

With one year to go until the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes roll into the UK, the Hess collapse has occurred alongside the UCI's consultation on economic and calendar issues for men's and women's cycling, and discussions about how teams should be funded and protected continue.