Teams & Riders Inter Lotto Marché

[Samamba]

I genuinly wonder how this team is gonna look like or just what the point is of this merger (apart from extra budget that won't be used next season then) if riders like Girmay (I'm ok with this tbc) or Rex (has an agreement with a top team, can't say the name publicly) don't even join. I also hear De Schuyteneer is thinking about leaving already (he has a concrete offer from a "better" team). I thought keeping talents longer was the whole point of this.

 

[Samamba]

Fusie tussen Lotto en Intermarché zit in afrondende fase, met De Lie én Girmay? | sporza

Er heerst al enkele maanden radiostilte over de nakende fusie tussen Lotto en Intermarché-Wanty. Over 2 à 3 weken zullen alle details bekend zijn. Krijgen we een slagkrachtige fusieploeg met De Lie, Widar, Van Eetvelt en Girmay?

sporza.be

According to Sporza:

• Girmay probably stays, so a team with 4 leaders: De Lie, Girmay, Van Eetvelt and Widar
• As previously known: Bourlart CEO, Visbeek Performance, Van de Wouwer sportive
• Donie stays u23 (was already known), Van de Wynkele, Veistroffer and Thompson will be let go from the guys with a contract at Lotto side (apart from how painful it is for these guys themselves I know 2 leaders who won't be happy with this)
• Merger will be finalized in 2 to 3 weeks (like no *** it has to in a week technically for the UCI)
• Lotto Ladies team applied for ProConti (was already known basically), Lotte Claes (my own info) will join

Earlier today there was Nieuwsblad article that said some staff members from Lotto got fired, 2 of them I know for a fact were very well respected by Lotto riders, again some leaders won't be happy about this.

Wouldn't surprise me if we see some drama from either De Lie or Van Eetvelt later this year.

And HLN Of course had to follow so they also made an article about the chaos behind the scenes. Yes, mergers always suck.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Fusie tussen Lotto en Intermarché zit in afrondende fase, met De Lie én Girmay? | sporza

Er heerst al enkele maanden radiostilte over de nakende fusie tussen Lotto en Intermarché-Wanty. Over 2 à 3 weken zullen alle details bekend zijn. Krijgen we een slagkrachtige fusieploeg met De Lie, Widar, Van Eetvelt en Girmay?

sporza.be

According to Sporza:

• Girmay probably stays, so a team with 4 leaders: De Lie, Girmay, Van Eetvelt and Widar
• As previously known: Bourlart CEO, Visbeek Performance, Van de Wouwer sportive
• Donie stays u23 (was already known), Van de Wynkele, Veistroffer and Thompson will be let go from the guys with a contract at Lotto side (apart from how painful it is for these guys themselves I know 2 leaders who won't be happy with this)
• Merger will be finalized in 2 to 3 weeks (like no *** it has to in a week technically for the UCI)
• Lotto Ladies team applied for ProConti (was already known basically), Lotte Claes (my own info) will join

Earlier today there was Nieuwsblad article that said some staff members from Lotto got fired, 2 of them I know for a fact were very well respected by Lotto riders, again some leaders won't be happy about this.

Wouldn't surprise me if we see some drama from either De Lie or Van Eetvelt later this year.

And HLN Of course had to follow so they also made an article about the chaos behind the scenes. Yes, mergers always suck.

Sucks for Veistroffer I guess, I was rather bullish on him. I hope he gets picked up by another pro-team but with the disappearance of Arkea places will be rather limited.
Do you know what will happen to Matthew Fox? I take it he won't be joining the new team in 2026?

 

[Samamba]

Sucks for Veistroffer I guess, I was rather bullish on him. I hope he gets picked up by another pro-team but with the disappearance of Arkea places will be rather limited.
Do you know what will happen to Matthew Fox? I take it he won't be joining the new team in 2026?

I know nothing (apart from that Lotto riders and staff aren't happy and are annoyed right now). And I can't be arsed anymore to find out about this whole thing as I think it's a typical Jeannie Haek created mess.

2,5 miljoen euro schulden, onrust bij personeel na ontslagronde en renners op de wip: waarom de fusie tussen Lotto en Intermarché-Wanty op zich laat wachten

Over een week verloopt de deadline. Dan moet de fusie tussen de wielerploegen Lotto en Intermarché-Wanty rond zijn. Hoe kan het dat de tijd plots tikt, terwijl de twee partijen de eenmaking zo graag willen? Er blijken meer obstakels dan gedacht: een schuldenput van 2,5 miljoen euro, onvrede bij...

www.hln.be

Anyways here's the HLN article. They are fighting about who's need to fill up the 2.5M debt Bourlart and his Intermarché team created LOL. This has literally been known for months and you're fighting over that in October???? Why even do a merger with a team that's in debt, and even give the people who lead that team the CEO position. Wild. At this point I'm just gonna be happy when Lotto dies so I don't have to follow Haeks moronic mistakes anymore.

 

[Rob5091]

Wouldn't surprise me if we see some drama from either De Lie or Van Eetvelt later this year.

I did start the official rumour on the Decathlon "Pirate" Shipmates thread about De Lie going off to them. Sure sounds very messy.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I did start the official rumour on the Decathlon "Pirate" Shipmates thread about De Lie going off to them. Sure sounds very messy.

If he wants to leave, surely this is the time for him? Unless of course people from Lotto beg him to wait until after the merger in order to be in a stronger position at the table.

 

[Samamba]

If he wants to leave, surely this is the time for him? Unless of course people from Lotto beg him to wait until after the merger in order to be in a stronger position at the table.

Why now exactly? Because he's annoyed like every other rider? Cause Lotto riders aren't free like Intermarché riders. He would be expensive to buy out. Of course for some teams it wouldn't be a problem, but still... not easy. Also, he has said multiple times that he will finish out this contract cause he's a man of his word. He won't be satisfied with Veistroffer, who is one of his mates in the team, being let go, but don't think he's leaving.

I think Van Eetvelt will be more dissatisfied (even tho Thompson didn't have a good season, he's basically the only pure climber in both teams that had a contract and him and LVE have a good bond), and he's way cheaper to buy out. Should be interesting for Visma imo.

 

[Netserk]

I think Van Eetvelt will be more dissatisfied (even tho Thompson didn't have a good season, he's basically the only pure climber in both teams that had a contract and him and LVE have a good bond), and he's way cheaper to buy out. Should be interesting for Visma imo.

Wouldn't he want a protected role in a GT? Hard to see without Yates not renewing (depending on how much age slows him down by 2027).

 

[Samamba]

Wouldn't he want a protected role in a GT? Hard to see without Yates not renewing (depending on how much age slows him down by 2027).

Yeah possibly. But he could get leadership in classics + maybe a free role in some sort of GT, but of course his GT chances would be limited. But then again, he would also be earning signifiantly more there. Tbc, I'm not saying any of this is happening. I still see him just completing his contract and then off to QS or something, for Lotto (imo) this merger comes at the worst time possible cause you should be negotiating with both Van Eetvelt and De Lie to extend right now instead of changing up your whole team and annoying them.

But yeah Jeannie Haek is not the person to realize these things. He will probably pikachu face when both leave and they are left with nothing and become Cofidis 2.0 (cause they can't keep banking on super talents coming out of their devo team, as most good Belgian juniors now immediately go to Visma, Red Bull, Trek, QS, ...)

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Why now exactly? Because he's annoyed like every other rider? Cause Lotto riders aren't free like Intermarché riders. He would be expensive to buy out. Of course for some teams it wouldn't be a problem, but still... not easy. Also, he has said multiple times that he will finish out this contract cause he's a man of his word. He won't be satisfied with Veistroffer, who is one of his mates in the team, being let go, but don't think he's leaving.

I think Van Eetvelt will be more dissatisfied (even tho Thompson didn't have a good season, he's basically the only pure climber in both teams that had a contract and him and LVE have a good bond), and he's way cheaper to buy out. Should be interesting for Visma imo.

My post started with "If he wants to leave". If he doesn't want to leave, you have my promise i will not force him to leave. He has my blessing to do what he wants. But, if he wants to leave, it would make sense since they also need to see if/how/whether they can keep Girmay be it alongside De Lie or not. As well as 30 other riders that will get kicked to the curb. And the fact that a lot will change now regardless. The Lotto how he knew it will be gone, whether he stays or not.

 

[Rob5091]

Decathlon has room for 2 more rides for next year ...

 

[pastronef]

so they sent the papers to the UCI, Lotto-Intermarché is official for 2026

 

[aruipksni]

so they sent the papers to the UCI, Lotto-Intermarché is official for 2026

well, the national strike was over, so they managed to send the paper, but how long will Belgium merger last?

 

[Rob5091]

Well, for the guys involved let's hope it all works out or there'll be some glum faces around the Christmas tree -
https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...to-merge-and-form-new-world-tour-team-in-2026

As expected this would ultimately be a team that has the Lotto structure as its big base, but according to Het Laatste Nieuws the 31-rider team will constist of 17 riders that are currently signed with Lotto and 14 of Intermarché, making it a rather even split. This is very unlikely to include Biniam Girmay who's been heavily linked with Israel - Premier.

If Gee goes then that'll help to buy up Girmay.

 

[Samamba]

There will be plenty of spots at the merged team if most good riders are leaving lmao

 

[RedheadDane]

I don't think they're gonna take it quite this far:

Especially since something seems to have gone horribly wrong in the merging of two riders.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I don't think they're gonna take it quite this far:

Especially since something seems to have gone horribly wrong in the merging of two riders.

It looks like one of my creations, but I swear it isn't.

 

[RedheadDane]

It looks like one of my creations, but I swear it isn't.

I'm glad to hear you don't have a secret lap where you splice people together like some sort of evil scientist.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'm glad to hear you don't have a secret lap where you splice people together like some sort of evil scientist.

I'm not sure how that would work anyway.

 

[Samamba]

So Intermarché signed the papers apparently (finally), but as expected for less than what they've been paying Intermarché. Wanty also joined but for less (this was always known, will sponsor for next 6 years tho).

Some info (from press and a few things I've picked up):

• Name: Lotto-Intermarché
• Owner: Captains of Cycling (Lotto)
• CEO: Bourlart (Intermarché)
• Other management roles: Van de Wouwer (Lotto) sporting director, Visbeek (Intermarché) performance manager, some other Intermarché guys in management roles will join too.
• Budget: Around 22M (so way less than hoped
• Bikes: Orbea (Lotto)
• Jersey: Vermarc (Lotto), will be red and black probably
• Glasses & Helmets : Ekoi (Lotto)
• Cars: Steveny (Intermarché)
• Other sponsors on jersey: Caps (Lotto), Wanty (Intermarché) + possibly more that I'm not sure of yet
• Womens Pro Team (Lotto): Lotte Claes is rumored as a transfer)
• Devo team (Lotto)

(there's rumors about a potential Pro Team linked to it (which would start out of the current Wanty dev team) but as far as I know this is against UCI rules and honestly also just a waste of money, like what even would be the point?)

First team training camp will be in december so by then the team will be officially announced at least.

Of course the biggest question (and disappointment cause Bourlart couldn't convince the best Intermarché riders)... which riders will ride for the team? 29 riders are filled in if we have to believe what we hear, last spot is open for Girmay but latest rumors are that he has decided to leave.

So team should look something like this (unconfirmed tbc):

1. Arnaud De Lie
2. Lennert Van Eetvelt
3. Jarno Widar
4. Milan Menten
5. Steffen De Schuyteneer
6. Toon Aerts
7. Lionel Taminiaux
8. Liam Slock
9. Sebastien Grignard
10. Cedric Beullens
11. Lars Craps
12. Joshua Giddings
13. Mathieu Kockelmann
14. Robin Orins
15. Matthew Fox
16. Jenno Berckmoes
17. Jasper De Buyst
18. Matys Grisel
19. Taco Van der Hoorn
20. Georg Zimmermann
21. Jonas Rutsch
22. Simone Gualdi
23. Lorenzo Rota
24. Vito Braet
25. Huub Artz
26. Roel Van Sintmaartensdijk
27.
28.
29.
30. (Girmay?)

I'm assuming guys like Bonneu, Van Boven etc. are getting picked up for these last spots now that others have decided to leave.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

According to Magnus Aare in Norwegian TV2 Felix Ørn Kristoff will get a role in the new team, but whether it’s another year in Devo team or in the WT team he didn’t say anything about.

 

[Samamba]

According to Magnus Aare in Norwegian TV2 Felix Ørn Kristoff will get a role in the new team, but whether it’s another year in Devo team or in the WT team he didn’t say anything about.

Yeah, but I'm also not sure if he will be in the WT team (he should be devo imo, he still can learn a lot there), he also wasn't present at the teamdays I think.

 

[Berniece]

Budget: Around 22M (so way less than hoped

What were their individual budgets?

 

[Samamba]

What were their individual budgets?

like 14(Lotto) and 16.5 (Intermarché).

 

[Lexman]

No Van De Wynckele ? wasn't he a neo prof ?