Teams & Riders Lotto Cycling Team

[Samamba]

Viviani is the OG thief, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Obviously completely shocked by this transfer and I'm like wtf is he gonna do here, but I am assuming he's just cheap now so it's impossible for him to continue his thievery. I asked someone who should be able to figure out what his contract details are, but no answer yet.

Viviani can grab a lot of points...

How so?

I am assuming this transfer is because Van de Paar isn't healing as quick as they hoped for and they simply don't have enough fit riders right now. He also brings in experience so sure why not if he's not expensive, but points? Where is gonna get them?

 

[Lexman]

Obviously completely shocked by this transfer and I'm like wtf is he gonna do here, but I am assuming he's just cheap now so it's impossible for him to continue his thievery. I asked someone who should be able to figure out what his contract details are, but no answer yet.


How so?

I am assuming this transfer is because Van de Paar isn't healing as quick as they hoped for and they simply don't have enough fit riders right now. He also brings in experience so sure why not if he's not expensive, but points? Where is gonna get them?

Mente, Van de paar don'tdeliver, you can add a sprinter to the team in their races...

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Good job viviani joined the team, now I can spell the name of at least one rider on this thread.

 

[Lexman]

a bit meh this weekend, Van Moer who exceeded the expectations when De Lie was faltering and sunday they were riding all the time well attentif but not the final km, which is a pity to grab some points...

Van Moer and Livyns are really ok...

 

[Samamba]

No Strade for Jenno (will be back in top form for MSR). Van Eetvelt on his own there basically.

 

[Lexman]

any news on races for Viviani?

 

[Samamba]

any news on races for Viviani?

Criquelion, Monseré, Nokere, MSR/Bredene, De Panne, possibly Limburg and Turkey (but that's not decided yet).

 

[search]

No Strade for Jenno (will be back in top form for MSR)

are you confident about this? Looks like he trained on Teide the past couple of weeks?

 

[Samamba]

are you confident about this? Looks like he trained on Teide the past couple of weeks?

He has been training at home since his sickness.
He himself was confident a week ago. Was doing 7h training days again. He felt really good. But ofc no race rythm

 

[Berniece]

Apparently Van Eetvelt is not riding De Ronde anymore. Unless De Lie makes a miraculous recovery, I'm not sure they can even finish top 10

 

[Samamba]

Apparently Van Eetvelt is not riding De Ronde anymore. Unless De Lie makes a miraculous recovery, I'm not sure they can even finish top 10

I'm not sure why he's not on the provisional (lot's of Lotto's provisionals aren't correct), but his family said it's still the plan to ride RVV.

Also "even top 10", I swear they haven't top 10'd that race in like 5 years, so top 10 would already be a miracle lmao. Not like Van Eetvelt is a big chance to top 10 that race, he still is primarely a climber. At this point I take any top 10 in any flemish classic.

 

[Berniece]

I'm not sure why he's not on the provisional (lot's of Lotto's provisionals aren't correct), but his family said it's still the plan to ride RVV.

Alright, so probably he'll be added later.

What are the expectations of Widar in Coppi e Bartali?

 

[Samamba]

Alright, so probably he'll be added later.

What are the expectations of Widar in Coppi e Bartali?

I don't know what Widars form is, but if he's in form he should easily be able to top 10, wasn't it for probably atrocious positioning which is important there.

 

[Lexman]

I'm not sure why he's not on the provisional (lot's of Lotto's provisionals aren't correct), but his family said it's still the plan to ride RVV.

Also "even top 10", I swear they haven't top 10'd that race in like 5 years, so top 10 would already be a miracle lmao. Not like Van Eetvelt is a big chance to top 10 that race, he still is primarely a climber. At this point I take any top 10 in any flemish classic.

where do you see their provisionals, they don't put the squad for the races in April on their website?

 

[Lexman]

article in flemish on De Lie

Worstelende Arnaud De Lie houdt voorlopig deels vast aan programma, maar: “Dit voorjaar nog op topniveau geraken, wordt onmogelijk”

Quo vadis, Arnaud De Lie? In de Classic Brugge-De Panne kwam de Belgische kampioen niet eens aan sprinten toe. Uiteraard omdat de chaotische finale het peloton zwaar had gereduceerd. Maar... in zijn geval ook bewust, want door zijn team Lotto tijdelijk verlost van de druk van het kopmanschap...

www.hln.be

no longer the leader at races to lessen the pressure, they don't see him races finales this spring, we adapt his races, normally GW, RVV, PR maybe Dwars door Vlaanderen as well to be seen
his situation is combination of items the performance team is checking things out, some mistake of last year were repeated but it's a combination of different things

 

[Berniece]

According to Dirk De Wolf who heard it directly from Dirk Demol, he trained too long in Spain instead of Belgium. He couldn’t elaborate on what that really means.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

According to Dirk De Wolf who heard it directly from Dirk Demol, he trained too long in Spain instead of Belgium. He couldn’t elaborate on what that really means.

Top level intel.

 

[Berniece]

Top level intel.

I also found it quite ridiculous, but I think there's probably more to it. He was hinting at him not being that happy when training in Spain, and wanting to work more on the farm which he loves to do.

 

[Red Rick]

I also found it quite ridiculous, but I think there's probably more to it. He was hinting at him not being that happy when training in Spain, and wanting to work more on the farm which he loves to do.

If your team leader makes training decisions on wanting to work on the farm you are a certified meme team.

 

[Ricco']

Maybe it's lost in translation and he wanted to farm points again in those 1.1 races.

 

[Lexman]

Lotto and cyclocross team De Schacht Hens work together

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20250404_96165470

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Lotto and cyclocross team De Schacht Hens work together

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20250404_96165470

Toon Aerts wins Roubaix 2027, you heard it here first.

 

[Samamba]

so their only positive side is they are sure to get the WT for 3 years. but surely the owners and managers will have to work hard to solve the situation. gone are the epic years of Wellens/Benoot, the Greipel train, Hansen 19 GT in a row (threw that number there randomly) etc. things went awry when they sacked the previous managers and did hire that former Astana woman and heulot, no?

Responding here, cause it has nothing to do with UNO X anymore.

No cause the previous CEO was Lelangue and he was way worse. Seel (former Astan women) wasn't bad either and imo it's been worse behind the scenes since she's gone so. Not that I'm a fan of Heulot, his communication is problematic and with the current Belgian press already trying to look for every reason to *** on the team that's important. I remember even trying to tell some people at Lotto 2 years ago they should go for a Flemish guy as CEO just to make the press happy. Biggest problem for the team is the bad perception it has. Even when results were good people try to look for things to be negative.

Anyways, problems always run way deeper at Lotto. In short, it's always "political" there. Owner is a moron (well the CEO of the company), but also needs to follow political directions cause it's a company majority owned by the government. And that isn't easy. CEO is a puppet of the owner most of the time, someone that follows them, doesn't "revolt". Was changing in a positive direction last few years cause they finally realized they need to give some freedom to the people actually working for the team, but that's already gone. In the end it's all about money. I've been warning them for years. It will not be possible for Lotto to be a decent team in the future with the Lottery being the number 1 sponsor, and definitely not when they don't give want to give other sponsors a say in anything. The Lottery could perfectly give 30M a year, they won't even notice it, but because of politics that will never happen (if anything it will be less in the future), so their budget will never go up significantly. And in modern cycling that just isn't enough. I still don't think they realize that. They think it's fine good riders leave every time, they think they can get bailed out by their devo team every time again, but that just isn't true at all.

 

[pastronef]

I've been warning them for years. It will not be possible for Lotto to be a decent team in the future with the Lottery being the number 1 sponsor, and definitely not when they don't give want to give other sponsors a say in anything. The Lottery could perfectly give 30M a year, they won't even notice it, but because of politics that will never happen (if anything it will be less in the future), so their budget will never go up significantly. And in modern cycling that just isn't enough. I still don't think they realize that. They think it's fine good riders leave every time, they think they can get bailed out by their devo team every time again, but that just isn't true at all.

dear me, really a management disaster from the top

 

[Netserk]

Anyways, problems always run way deeper at Lotto. In short, it's always "political" there. Owner is a moron (well the CEO of the company), but also needs to follow political directions cause it's a company majority owned by the government. And that isn't easy. CEO is a puppet of the owner most of the time, someone that follows them, doesn't "revolt". Was changing in a positive direction last few years cause they finally realized they need to give some freedom to the people actually working for the team, but that's already gone. In the end it's all about money. I've been warning them for years. It will not be possible for Lotto to be a decent team in the future with the Lottery being the number 1 sponsor, and definitely not when they don't give want to give other sponsors a say in anything. The Lottery could perfectly give 30M a year, they won't even notice it, but because of politics that will never happen (if anything it will be less in the future), so their budget will never go up significantly. And in modern cycling that just isn't enough. I still don't think they realize that. They think it's fine good riders leave every time, they think they can get bailed out by their devo team every time again, but that just isn't true at all.

It seemed to be less political back in the Omega-Pharma days? Hard to imagine a different sponsor as the first name now or an Aussie GC leader in the Tour.