Total Sponsorship with Ineos

TotalEnergies will join Ineos as a co-sponsor, with the French oil major appearing on the jersey in time for the Tour de France next week.

There’s no news from the team on this yet but it is on the Total corporate website. The size of the logo should tell us something about the size of ambitions.

Total is the French oil major, one of the biggest companies in France valued at €120 billion today which means it is one of the bigger corporate sponsors in the sport. As mentioned here before they’ve got a history of working with Ineos too.

TotalEnergies has finalized a sponsorship deal for the INEOS Grenadiers’ jersey, starting at this year’s Tour de France
– Press Release

It’s a shirt sponsorship deal according to the press release and nothing more for now. So the team is likely to stay as Ineos Grenadiers. We’ll have to see what happens with the kit, presumably the logo is prominent on the chest and back rather than a small addition on the back pocket which gets covered by the logo.

Le switch?
Not quite as TotalEnergies will also remain title sponsor for at least one more year for Jean-René Bernaudeau’s band of baroudeurs. They will discuss plans for 2027 and beyond after the Tour de France. We’ll see where these talks go, for now it sounds like a gracious exit route, TotalEnergies is not doing a runner. Bernaudeau is retiring soon and depart without a sour note.

Hang on…
If you’re thinking a sponsor can’t have two teams, you’re almost right. It’s against the UCI rules. Here is the relevant part of the rulebook:

2.15.052 The members of a UCI WorldTeam may have no link with the members of another UCI WorldTeam, with a UCI ProTeam or with an organiser of a UCI WorldTour event likely to influence the sporting course of events or to be perceived as so doing. In exceptional cases, which do not challenge the integrity of the competition or the sporting fairness, the UCI Management Committee may grant an exception.

But if this rule sounds familiar, you might remember it being cited when FDJ bought Unibet and today FDJ and Unibet are each title sponsors of respective teams despite ultimately being part of the same company. Perhaps having different brands means the perception is reduced? Note perception is an issue here but we’re talking about the “paying agent” in the UCI jargon, the people controlling and funding the team. Many teams have common sponsors, think Canyon or Specialized as bike suppliers, likewise for components or clothing.

There might be a way around but this is an issue recognised by Total in their press release today:

TotalEnergies confirms that its agreements with these two cycling teams are strictly commercial and exclude any influence and/or interference in sporting matters and race strategies. The Company is implementing internal rules to ensure this separation and the full independence of both teams. A principle the UCI will monitor in accordance with its regulation.

This statement is meant to reassure but remember the rules cite perception so it’s an open issue, presumably the UCI have blessed all of this but imagine what an average fan might think if there’s a breakaway with an Ineos rider, a TotalEnergies rider and a rider from another team? It might look awkward here but in reality in this situation there is no reason for collusion. The risks are probably higher up in terms of management, would Brailsford want to help out Bernaudeau or vice versa? Hopefully not but we’re back to perception.

Also while the Total talks have been going on, several riders are being linked with a move to Ineos like Kévin Vauquelin, Benoît Cosnefroy and Dorian Godon and guess what they have in common. Linked for now but we’ll see if the team needs to hire a couple of French riders.

The big question is whether the extra money means they can go after Remco Evenepoel, either to buy him out of his contract or to wave a contract for 2027 so tempting that he’ll sign it this summer and wait out his last year at Quickstep. This and other recruitment decisions await after an exodus last summer that ended with Tom Pidcock’s surprise late switch.

TotalEnergies will also become a sponsor of the Tour de France as well. The press release mentions it as an “Official Partner” which is a formal term with race organisers ASO. There are four “Main Partners” whose branding appears on the four jerseys in the race and get prominence elsewhere too. “Official Partner” is the next level down like Vittel water, Shimano and others, including Ag2r which have sponsored a team as well. It gives the company even more coverage, from the Tour’s publicity caravan to VIP opportunities.

It’s a big move by Total which got into cycling sponsorship accidentally as it bought Direct Energie, an alternative energy supplier in France, back in 2018 and found it had a cycling team. But it stayed with this, indeed the company boss Patrick Pouyanné has taken an interest in the sport, if only for sponsoring and communication, for a while. They came close to signing Julian Alaphilippe, now they have a full men’s team.

Summary
TotalEnergies is increasing its sponsorship in the sport. This looks like a gradual deal with jersey sponsorship at Ineos to begin with and one more year with the French pro conti team, the current contract with Bernaudeau’s team was expiring this year. This is unusual with two teams sharing the same sponsor.

For now we can’t see new Ineos jersey but when it comes out in time for the Tour de France the size of the Total logo will tell us plenty about the size of the deal… and their ambitions too.