According to De Telegraaf, the French Cycling Federation has yet to pay prize money for some of its biggest races, like Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France. Nibali is still to be paid his €540,000 for winning the Tour.

The paper says that the FCC has placed more than €2 million in a bank account rather than distributing it to teams and riders, saying it is waiting for results from drug tests to ensure that no doped riders receive prize money. The FCC said it will payout prize money once a year.

The ASO, organisers of the Tour de France and other prestigious French races like Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, told de Telegraaf that it has long since fulfilled its financial obligations by providing the money to the federation.

"The responsibility stops there with us," an ASO spokesman told de Telegraaf. "Then it is up to the French Cycling Federation."