“I have never won such a big race,” said cyclist Cédrine Kerbaol in 2024, beaming in a post-race interview. She had just won a stage of the Tour de France Femmes after a 15km solo attack, making history as the event’s first-ever French stage winner, and securing her team Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling’s most prestigious victory. “It’s crazy.”
A lot can change in a year. Kerbaol left for EF Education-Oatly at the end of the season, activating a get-out clause after the team had some hiccups registering for their WorldTour license. Then, in September 2025, Ceratizit Pro Cycling’s general manager Claude Sun was forced to close the team he’d spent more than a decade building. “It’s your baby,” he tells Cyclingnews. “You’ve got a good relationship with all the riders – it’s like your family. And from the sports point of view, it’s not a good thing.”
The irony is that women’s cycling has never been bigger: the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is broadcast in 190 different countries, with 7.7 million viewers watching the final stage last year, according to France TV. There is more money, more professionalism. The Women’s WorldTour level was introduced in 2020, the average WorldTour team budget has risen to €4.67 million, and the UCI’s minimum salary requirements are almost in line with the men’s. But with costs soaring, teams like Ceratizit are struggling to stay afloat. Is women’s cycling becoming a victim of its own success?
Sun, who was previously sales manager for the B2B cutting and machining tools company, launched the team, then known as WNT, in 2014. The aim was to promote the business – diluting the brand’s masculine image by sponsoring a women’s team – and, he says, to “develop new talent, very important for us, and have an international team.” In 2019, the team moved from Sheffield to Germany, signing riders like Kirsten Wild, Clara Koppenburg and Lisa Brennauer. It joined the WorldTour in 2024, and, over its 11 seasons, achieved 65 road victories – 13 in the WorldTour – and four Olympic medals, hardly poor results.
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