Concerns are mounting around British women’s team Hess Cycling after reports of non-payments to riders, a lack of UCI registration, and riders already leaving the team with the squad not having started a race yet in 2025.
However, the team tells Cyclingnews that registration is imminent, and they will be starting their season next week.
Launched in 2023, Hess were previously registered as a UCI Continental team, but have been missing from the UCI database since the start of the year, and now a joint investigation by ProCyclingUK and Velo-Club has established that the team paid riders and staff late at the end of 2024 and failed to pay their kit manufacturer.
The first concrete sign of trouble and the possibility of the team folding emerged on Thursday when one of the team’s signings for 2024, Estonia’s Laura Lizette Sander, was announced as a new rider for Coop-Repsol. Irish star Esther Wong also announced a move to British club-level team Torelli on Thursday.
The team has yet to race in 2025, and seemingly does not have a physical kit, only a mock-up, with ProCyclingUK reporting that former manufacturer Cuore ended their relationship over missed payments. They report that team staff member Bob De Cnodder has left the team, taking with him the team’s only vehicles.
ProCyclingUK reports that salary payments for riders and staff in December and January were missed, but were eventually paid on February 8.
The issues around payments are also seemingly part of the reason why the team’s UCI registration has been delayed, with ProCyclingUK publishing an email reportedly from the UCI to riders, asking for confirmation that outstanding payments had been addressed before they could register the team for 2025.
Even at Continental level, there are various criteria teams must meet to be able to obtain a UCI licence, including providing a bank guarantee, which for women's Continental teams is set at 15% of the total wage bill, or €20,000, whichever figure is higher.
The team, however, told Cyclingnews that the registration issue is now resolved, and will be complete within the next few days, with their first race set for next weekend.
"We have been able to move forward with everything and will be registered as a UCI Continental Team – today, latest Monday," a representative of the team said in an e-mail on Friday.
"Our first race will be the Midwest Classic in Belgium on the 23rd March. The team, the staff and the management look forward to kickstarting the season and look forward to hopefully many successes throughout the season."
The team previously told Velo-Club that their first race would be the GP Oetingen on March 12. They did not directly address the issues around missed payments.
Some riders have raced this season for their national teams, but most of the squad are still waiting to be able to race.
Cyclingnews currently understands that there is a possibility more riders will follow in departing the team.
Hess Cycling was established in 2023 as a Continental team registered in Luxembourg, and at the end of that year launched their ambitions to eventually join the WorldTour and ride the Tour de France Femmes. They changed their registration to British in 2024 and signed a host of new riders.
Their big ambitions, bankrolled by Swiss businessman Rolf Hess, came with a supposed €750,000 budget in 2024, but also some eyebrow-raising suggestions, such as the idea that riders would incorporate social media influencing into their careers, selling products produced by the Hess commercial group.
In 2024, the team raced a healthy calendar of European UCI races with riders like Marjolein van 't Geloof and Nicole Frain. The end of the season saw eight riders leave the team, and nine new riders arrive, though Sander and Wong have already left.
At the end of 2024, Rolf Hess faced investigation in Spain due to allegations of fraud at one of his companies. The team said in a statement that this would not impact the cycling team.
"While we take these reports seriously, we would like to underline that this situation has nothing to do with Hess Cycling and will not affect the team in any way," a statement shared with outlets including Cycling Weekly and ProCyclingUK at the time read.
"The Hess Cycling Team is looking forward to competing in UCI Continental team competitions in 2025 and beyond."
