Tour de France stage winner Pierrick Fedrigo has signalled that he is not happy to continue in the BBox Bouygues Telecom team after it was yesterday refused a renewal of its ProTour licence. The Frenchman isn’t satisfied that the Tour de France organisers ASO pledged to admit the team to the 2010 race, indicating that he wants to be able to compete in all the top races.
“There is no question that I will race in the Pro Continental [division],” he is quoted as saying in L’Equipe. “I must also think of myself and have true ambitions at the highest level.
However his manager Jean-Rene Bernaudaeau won’t tolerate such talk, and feels that the contract between them is still valid. “I’m not prepared to negotiate anything,” he said.
The pronouncements of the rider will be of a worry for the two French teams, BBox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis, as any exodus by their big guns would further affect their ranking while also affecting their ability to compete.
UCI ProTour manager Alain Rumpf yesterday commented on the matter. He confirmed that the two teams refused licences, BBox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis, were mainly passed over due to their poor results in 2009. They are currently rated as 19th and 20th in the UCI world rankings, below three Professional Continental teams.
However they may still be able to compete in some of the ProTour and Historic level races due to wild card invites.