{"id":657450,"date":"2025-12-27T08:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/657450\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T08:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:15:23","slug":"former-french-rider-slams-new-totalenergies-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/657450\/","title":{"rendered":"Former French rider slams new TotalEnergies manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most vocal detractors has been former rider and team manager J\u00e9r\u00f4me Pineau, who has been highly critical with the appointment. “Bernaudeau is handing the reins to a guy who has failed his teams more than he has helped them succeed. I failed one (B&B Hotels, in 2022), I take full responsibility for that\u2026 But we all know in the business that Heulot is not the most reliable guy,” Pineau said in an interview to RMC Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pineau pointed to Heulot\u2019s previous roles at Besson Chaussures (2009), Saur-Sojasun (2010-2013), Rally Cycling (2019-2021) and Lotto (2023-2025). The Besson Chaussures \/Saur-Sojasun project ended with sponsors withdrawals, while Lotto had to merge with Intermarch\u00e9 for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

“He arrives with one thing, I hope, a partner in his pocket,” he said. “However, in terms of preparation, values, and overall message, it’s completely different. He’s never raced for this team, never been around this team. What message are we sending here? This team has seen very brilliant people, much more brilliant than Mr. Heulot.”<\/p>\n

The appointment is also a break with the philosophy that had defined TotalEnergies since its foundation, according to Pineau. “This team is unique. We, the Vend\u00e9e veterans, have a philosophy that he (Jean-Ren\u00e9 Bernaudeau) has disregarded by making this choice. I don’t know what Heulot is capable of, I don’t know if this choice will pay off, but allow me to seriously doubt it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most vocal detractors has been former rider and team manager J\u00e9r\u00f4me Pineau, who has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,201014,188835,79,201013,60383,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-657450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-jean-rene-bernaudeau","10":"tag-jerome-pineau","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-stephane-heulot","13":"tag-totalenergies","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115790539906857167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}