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London to Paris cyclists in front of the Eiffel Tower (Hotchillee)Hotchillee cancels all events and to enter liquidation due to "ongoing financial challenges following Covid and Brexit referendum"
Hotchillee is the latest cycling brand to be hit by financial troubles, the cycling event organiser today announcing that it will enter liquidation in the coming weeks "due to financial difficulties experienced in recent years".
Apologising for the "abruptness of this announcement and the inconvenience" all upcoming events being cancelled might have, founder Sven Thiele explained that "despite our best efforts, the combination of internal matters, ongoing financial challenges following COVID-19 and the Brexit referendum, without sufficient capital injection to continue trading, the director has sought for advice in dealing with the company's affairs."
Describing the situation as a "devastating blow" for the company that has been organising events such as its popular London to Paris rides for 20 years, Hotchillee said its LONDON-PARIS Gravel 2024, Sri Lanka Gravel 2025, and Cape Rouleur 2025 have all been cancelled.
"After 20 extraordinary years, this is a devastating blow to all of us at Hotchillee," a statement which appeared on the company's website states. "The proposed liquidators will be in touch with creditors shortly to outline options and next steps.
"We greatly value and appreciate our community, and we sincerely apologise for the abruptness of this announcement and the inconvenience it may cause. This is an incredibly difficult situation for everyone and your understanding and patience during this challenging time are greatly appreciated."
The impact of Brexit on the London to Paris rides had already been reported, border issues following the UK's departure from the EU having led to increased costs and a logistical headache that meant this year's iconic event, which covered 520km between the British and French capitals, was going to be Hotchillee's last anyway.
> Brexit blamed as London-Paris organisers say 2024 edition will be the last
Last summer it was revealed that the total value of bikes used by people participating in the event last year was £1.7 million, and due to customs changes following Brexit, a carnet for the entire fleet has to be completed to avoid import duties from being applied to each individual bicycle.
No such paperwork was required while the UK remained within the customs union, and the additional costs – plus the prospect of bikes being held at the border if for whatever reason the documentation was unacceptable to customs officials – meant that it was impossible for the event to continue in its current format.
At the time, founder Thiele said they had enjoyed "so many years of inspirational London to Paris experiences" but were "wanting to offer a more sustainable experience for their riders".
"The increasing challenge of closing roads and securing permissions for race sections, combined with the ever growing complications of Brexit, Hotchillee's 20th anniversary edition will be the last in the current format," a statement said last July, a similar statement 13 months later bringing an end to the events and rides full stop.
Ben Stanyon and Nedim Ailyan, of FRP Advisory Trading Limited, have been formally instructed to place Hotchillee into liquidation "in the coming weeks".
Last month, we reported that participants were left "shocked, saddened, and angry" after £26,000 worth of bikes were stolen from Hotchillee's Enve Stone Circle gravel cycling event in Salisbury.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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46 comments
Ignoring the inevitable Brexit argument ongoing elsewhere, last time I checked Sri Lanka and South Africa weren't members of the EU.
and the future of the London-Paris ride had been canned a year ago already. So what's changed to make them go bust now ?
"So what's changed to make them go bust now ?"
The money ran out, presumably. It can take time to happen, but when it does happen, the change can effectively take place from one day to the next. It's rather like brexit itself: there were several years of brexity fun and games, and then suddenly, one day, we were out. Oops.
Well youd hope a business would have a finance plan in place thats longer than a year and monitoring cashflow so the money running out shouldn't be a surprise.
But this kind of detail is getting buried in a Brexit argument, which is perhaps the point.
You keep going on about "brexit", yet it is only one of the factors mentioned in the article, with "internal matters" and COVID 19 also being mentioned.
Are the sunlit uplands not living up to your expectations?
I'm not the one quoting the Brexit memes in this.
I'd just like to understand how a business took a year, whilst aware of all the factors impacting them, to notice a major income problem?
That being the matter at hand, and not some neverendum vote that happened nearly 10 years ago.
Why would anything else need to have changed? London-Paris was their flagship event and, I would imagine, their single biggest cashflow generator. If you lose that and nothing else changes (ie. you're unable to replace that cashflow) then sooner or later you're going to have major problems.
And seriously - the idea that relationships with countries on the other side of the world could replace seamless trade with our closest neighbours / biggest economic block in the world was part and parcel of the collective insanity that delivered the ultra-hardcore brexit we ended up with.
Probably one of their biggest expenses too. Partially closing the Champs Élysées with motorcycle outriders doesn't come cheap, I think the London to Paris event had had its day, lots of people have done it through a charity for considerably less outlay. The multi-day sportive market is already moving towards the "experience" rather than the achievement, hence the rise off off-road gravel events.
Yep, and I think they brought in that alt gravel route on London to Paris to boost the flagging interest in it.
The point being then how did they not see losing their biggest cash flow generator as more of a threat to the sustainability of the business a year ago.
Basically you're saying they lost a chunk of income, spent a year thinking about it and then realised it was going to be a problem.
It's been said before and will be said again, but Brexit truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
Thank you, old people!
(I'm not being serious, just in case people are wondering. Brexit was always guaranteed to have a poor outcome, and disastrous in some areas. An idea that deliberately had no planning behind it, that would separate the UK from its nearest and most important trading partner - in favour of the USA and the Pacific area!!! What could possibly go wrong with that?!)
"Brexit" is no more the fault of old people in general than it is of young people or blacks or women or any other group of people who happen to have some chararacteristic in common.
Brexit was delivered by the people that voted for it. The average age of a Brexit voter was significantly higher than the average voter so the original comment makes sense.
Don't have evidence on the other characteristics you mention, but there are plenty of stats on the age of Brexit voters from polls etc.
[Citation needed]
Fair point. I decided to go for more neutral language. Usually I would have gone for 'inflicted upon us'.
"Brexit" was "delivered" by the then PM Mrs May when she sent notice of the UK's withdrawal from the EU to Brussels, along with Parliament, which agreed to her doing so.
I am old. I didn't "deliver" "Brexit". The same goes for countless other old people.
No not all older people voted for Brexit, but the demographics clearly showed more older people voted for Brexit in the Referendum than young.
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/brexit-referendum-voti...
I understand that - and I'm probably an old person by now.
But as Sniffer points out, it was the older section of the population most in favour of it.
Pre-Brexit I could legally - and easily - work in more than two dozen countries. That right, which I wasn't likely to use but others could have, has been taken away.
And that is an utter and total disgrace.
Still, in 50 years' time we'll see the benefits. Sadly, I'll be long dead by then...
In the interest of accuracy, and not to make a political point, you are still able to work 90 days out of 180 in the EU under the Schengen Agreement, which may be sufficient for many roles.
Obviously the Pandemic caused remote working and videoconferencing to be the new normal for former office jobs so many customers are focused on results not on being present.
I wish you every success in whatever you do.
In the interests of accuracy, you're allowed to be in the EU/Schengen for 90 days in 180, not necessarily to work there. For that, a suitable work permit is now required. Thanks, Cameron, you absolute bell-end
You do realise that all these claims that only older people voted for Brexit are not probable? If it's not that then Brexiters are racist!
Yes, Brexit has its challenges but so far covid has had the largest effect on our economy.
It's shocking to see the way that the EU is treating people taking bicycles on holiday compared to how any other countries would. Trouble is our anti-cycling car-centric culture doesn't care.
They're treating people in much the same way that any other country would treat people coming from a nation with which they don't have a free trade agreement. This isn't just "people taking bicycles on holiday" in the sense of a couple of old shopper bikes in the back of the car to use at the campsite in the south of France, Hotchillee would have been taking a lorry containing £1.7 million worth of bikes into France and it's perfectly reasonable for the French to demand the requisite paperwork to prove that none of them will be sold in France or elsewhere in the EU without paying the duty owing. Exactly the same would be required of a French company bringing the same type and value of goods into Britain, nothing shocking about it.
I gave you a citation that provided evidence that older people disproportiantly voted Leave (there is not statement in this thread that all old people voted Leave).
Pretty clear cut. Got any evidence to challenge this?
Blacks? Come on, if you can say old people and young people you can say black people too.
I could have written "female people" too, I suppose. And you could have written "Black" with a capital "B".
Calling female people women isn't offensive. Calling black people "blacks" is. Would you say "there are a lot of blacks in this neighbourhood"? Would you say "a black came up and spoke to me"? Do you really need this to be explained to you? Seriously?
It wasn't meant offensively, and I wasn't aware that it might be taken that way. Your patronising tone is unnecessary and seems rather hypocritical in the context. I've noticed it a couple of times before on this forum. I find it rather unpleasant.
I find racist language rather unpleasant, so there we go. How is it hypocritical to ask you not to use a racist term, even if you were unaware that it's offensive? If I was using racist terms elsewhere that would be hypocritical, pretty certain I haven't been though.
You were being deliberately unpleasant; I was not.
In what way is "Blacks? Come on, if you can say old people and young people you can say black people too" deliberately unpleasant? I was simply asking you not to use terminology that has long been established as racist.
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