The Zaaf crisis continues to prolong itself, and it is taking steps that seem more and more definitive. In mid-April, AS revealed the non-payments, the complaints and the intentions of leaving the team of many of its brokers. Unfulfilled promises of a Spanish project that was presented ambitiously at the beginning of the year and that continues to be diluted. Audrey Cordon-Ragot, Its star was the one that opened the ban on the marches, and in fact the French woman has already run the Paris-Roubaix with a different team. The UCI, making an exception for this special situation, allowed the riders to freely sign for any other team with immediate effect in case they have offers for it. By accumulating more complaints for non-payments, the UCI made this decision (under normal conditions, they could not sign for another team until June 1).
At the end of 2022, and outside of the established dates, they deposited a guarantee to have three months of fund in the brokers in case of not receiving and although some did receive a good part of their salary in recent weeks, the number of marches grew day after day, until the situation has finally become untenable. There were fifteen runners who made up the squad for this season, and there are already eight who have left the team. That is to say, today there are seven left… which means that they lose their UCI license by regulation. To be a women’s continental team, the Zaaf must have a minimum of eight runners, something that does not happen. They lose their license. They are no longer listed on the UCI website itself.
With this scenario, they recently resigned from the Women’s Vuelta a España that starts next Monday, despite the fact that they were one of the ten invited teams and could participate with four riders. Now his presence in World Tour events would no longer be possible. This Saturday they were going to participate in the reVolta, in Catalonia, but this same Friday they announced their absence: “They had the intention of coming to the reVolta with five riders. We were recently told no. They could participate, in a higher level or WT they could not run. On paper, being a 1.1 race, as the national team of the country of the race (even if they did not have a Continental license) they could run if they confirmed five registered cyclists. It would have been Zaaf as a national team (not Continental)”, they said from the organization of the race to AS.