Teams & Riders Lotto Cycling Team

[Devil's Elbow]

Lotto-Destiny sounds like something out of a gambling dystopia.

 

[Bonimenier]

Another great step today towards staying in WT.

 

[Samamba]

Another great step today towards staying in WT.

I don't think anyone within Lotto thought before the season that they would get their points from races like Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege. I don't get why so many people are acting surprised when they don't get results in these races. Definitely when Wellens was involved in that massive crash and Kron basically got his whole classic season ruined by crashes (Amstel and Brabantse) and now sickness. Like seriously, what do people expect?

Together with Israel they're probably the team with the most amount of bad luck this season and it obviously shows in results. I don't think people realize how many points they lost out because of their leaders getting sick before their main races or crashing out in those races.

That being said, their upcoming relegation will obviously also be the result of Lelangues ridiculous mistake to give Gilbert a 3y multimillion dollar contract. You're just *** if a guy like that doesn't perform.

 

[SafeBet]

I don't think anyone within Lotto thought before the season that they would get their points from races like Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege. I don't get why so many people are acting surprised when they don't get results in these races. Definitely when Wellens was involved in that massive crash and Kron basically got his whole classic season ruined by crashes (Amstel and Brabantse) and now sickness. Like seriously, what do people expect?

Kron's schedule was kind of joke for a team that badly needs points. He has 14 racing days.

 

[yaco]

Lotto should cope better with relegation better than other teams when you consider their roots and sponsorship - As the 19th team they'll get into all the big one day races, especially in Belgium and they'll get one or two GT's.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I don't think anyone within Lotto thought before the season that they would get their points from races like Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege. I don't get why so many people are acting surprised when they don't get results in these races. Definitely when Wellens was involved in that massive crash and Kron basically got his whole classic season ruined by crashes (Amstel and Brabantse) and now sickness. Like seriously, what do people expect?

Together with Israel they're probably the team with the most amount of bad luck this season and it obviously shows in results. I don't think people realize how many points they lost out because of their leaders getting sick before their main races or crashing out in those races.

That being said, their upcoming relegation will obviously also be the result of Lelangues ridiculous mistake to give Gilbert a 3y multimillion dollar contract. You're just *** if a guy like that doesn't perform.

They have 73 points out of all 4 monuments combined. That's downright pathetic.

They should go all out in races like Danmark Rundt, Baloise Belgium Tour, Binckbank Tour and swamp GC with Wellens, Campenaerts. Van Gils, Kron etc ... while De Lie goes for stages. That kind of stuff, and hope Ewan scores big in the TDF.

 

[Billie]

Last year they were 2nd In San Remo and Roubaix and it didn't help them points wise.

Also the Canadian classics give the same amount of points as the monuments for some reason. Much better to focus on them for the points.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Lotto should cope better with relegation better than other teams when you consider their roots and sponsorship - As the 19th team they'll get into all the big one day races, especially in Belgium and they'll get one or two GT's.

Do Alpecin have to take up the WT status? Some commentators say yes and others no.

 

[tobydawq]

They just signed Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Carlos Barbero who have been out of work since the demise of Qhubeka.

Maybe there are a few points in those two?

 

[Ricco']

They just signed Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Carlos Barbero who have been out of work since the demise of Qhubeka.

Maybe there are a few points in those two?

Points earned with other teams (or while being without team) doesn't carry to the new team.

One would think that someone like Malucelli would be a target for someone in need of points, as he can rack up some placings in .1 races. Like Barbero but probably with more top speed.

 

[tobydawq]

Points earned with other teams (or while being without team) doesn't carry to the new team.

One would think that someone like Malucelli would be a target for someone in need of points, as he can rack up some placings in .1 races. Like Barbero but probably with more top speed.

No, that wasn't my point. It was that they maybe could score some points for the team after they have started riding for it.

 

[steffr222]

It’s just such a stupid move to have not signed RJvR at the end of 2021… it was pretty obvious for everyone that he will score loads of points in the first months of 2022. What did they expect?!

I just don‘t get it.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

RJVR has scored 350 UCI points so far, due to NC’s and African Championships. That is 350 points Lotto lost by not signing him in the offseason.

 

[Samamba]

Kron's schedule was kind of joke for a team that badly needs points. He has 14 racing days.

I agree if you're only goal would be securing points. I don't think riders (and sponsors) would like that. What's the point in staying in the WT when all your riders leave cause they had to race an annoying schedule all year. Kron was their "secret" leader for the ardennes so they give him the option to go on an altitude camp before it. He also got sick earlier in the year.

They just signed Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Carlos Barbero who have been out of work since the demise of Qhubeka.

Maybe there are a few points in those two?

They are getting signed because LTS (Lelangue) made the dumb mistake to start the season with 27 riders. They simply do not have enough riders to ride a double or triple schedule cause they have some riders who are out for the whole season. They do not expect them to get points themselves as only the top 10 riders count for the ranking.

They have 73 points out of all 4 monuments combined. That's downright pathetic.

They should go all out in races like Danmark Rundt, Baloise Belgium Tour, Binckbank Tour and swamp GC with Wellens, Campenaerts. Van Gils, Kron etc ... while De Lie goes for stages. That kind of stuff, and hope Ewan scores big in the TDF.

Obviously it's not good, but the only monument they actually failed in is RVV. MSR without their leader (Ewan sick), LBL without their leaders (Kron sick, Wellens crashing out), Roubaix without their leaders in the end (Campenaerts crashing out, Vermeersch 4 mechanicals). You can't expect from a low budget team that they can handle all that. Let's not forget that they got 2 monument podiums just last year.

I agree with the 2nd part tho. Well De Lie should probably just ride smaller one day races and he probably will end up on 1500 points at the end of the season. Just like Van Poppel did last season for Wanty.

RJVR has scored 350 UCI points so far, due to NC’s and African Championships. That is 350 points Lotto lost by not signing him in the offseason.

It's never smart to just believe some random twitter account. RJVR would've never scored those points if he was with LTS at the beginning of the season. And when I say never, I actually mean never. He would've been riding for the team in Europe instead of going to the continental champs. Just like every other WT team does. He probably would'nt even have ridden his own national champs, just like Impey for example didn't.

Look, LTS has made some dumb mistakes the past few years, but people need to stop trying to make them look even dumber than they actually are. It seems like it's just a fun hatetrain to get on right now.

 

[Lexman]

so when could the two new riders start to participate? 4 days of Dunkerque for RJVR or is that too early? otherwise Antwerp Port Epic? and Barbero , I thought Burgos but it seems they don't participate, no idea when he could ride for them Il Giro would be though no?

 

[Samamba]

so when could the two new riders start to participate? 4 days of Dunkerque for RJVR or is that too early? otherwise Antwerp Port Epic? and Barbero , I thought Burgos but it seems they don't participate, no idea when he could ride for them Il Giro would be though no?

I would expect they'll ride Dunkerque and a lot of one day races (basically the De Lie schedule). I'd expect LTS goes full Ewan for Giro (Schwarzmann, Kluge & Selig? as De Buyst has a broken collarbone) + Vanhoucke, Moniquet and maybe Holmes?

EDIT: I forgot about De Gendt, he's definitely going to the Giro

EDIT 2: looks like Barbero starts his season in Frankfurt. Some (although weak) WT action immediately, then Dunkerque

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Oh my god, i have just looked at their schedule. They have no self-awareness whatsoever (at least that hasn't changed since the changing of the guards). They are riding all the big races ( i know those are mandatory for WT teams), where they are sure to not finish in the top 20. But Tour of Norway, Tour de Hongrie, Adriatica Ionica, Tour of Slovenia etc, which are all races where they could get stagewins or go for GC with their youngsters, they aren't riding at all. I think they could reap more UCI points in two of these one-week races, than in an entire GT.

 

[Samamba]

Oh my god, i have just looked at their schedule. They have no self-awareness whatsoever (at least that hasn't changed since the changing of the guards). They are riding all the big races ( i know those are mandatory for WT teams), where they are sure to not finish in the top 20. But Tour of Norway, Tour de Hongrie, Adriatica Ionica, Tour of Slovenia etc, which are all races where they could get stagewins or go for GC with their youngsters, they aren't riding at all. I think they could reap more UCI points in two of these one-week races, than in an entire GT.

They are riding all WT races + as much one day races as they can. That's simply the best strat to get points for the team right now. Almost impossible to fit in more stage races (they withdrew from Hungary because they literally do not have enough fit riders right now) when you want your classic guys to ride the one day races and you need your "climbers" to fill up the squads for the hard WT races like Romandie (Vanhoucke, Cras), Giro (Vanhoucke, Moniquet), Dauphiné (Cras, Vanhoucke) and Suisse (Van Gils). The only one of them who could ride more is Van Gils. He has been sick for the past 2 weeks so they decided to give him rest before going on trainingscamp (or atleast that what his plans were). I don't really know what he'll ride before Suisse.

They have a lot of young riders, you can't just burn them all out. The season is still long and more importantly Lotto needs guys to stay with them after this year or they simply won't have a team. Noone is staying when you're ruining them riding as much races as they can.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

They are riding all WT races + as much one day races as they can. That's simply the best strat to get points for the team right now. Almost impossible to fit in more stage races (they withdrew from Hungary because they literally do not have enough fit riders right now) when you want your classic guys to ride the one day races and you need your "climbers" to fill up the squads for the hard WT races like Romandie (Vanhoucke, Cras), Giro (Vanhoucke, Moniquet), Dauphiné (Cras, Vanhoucke) and Suisse (Van Gils). The only one of them who could ride more is Van Gils. He has been sick for the past 2 weeks so they decided to give him rest before going on trainingscamp (or atleast that what his plans were). I don't really know what he'll ride before Suisse.

They have a lot of young riders, you can't just burn them all out. The season is still long and more importantly Lotto needs guys to stay with them after this year or they simply won't have a team. Noone is staying when you're ruining them riding as much races as they can.

Why would you assume i would have them ride all the races? They have a group of fairly talented young climbers who could get decent results in minor races, which could add up to a very nice bonus of UCI points. Imho it's a better strategy to maximize points in smaller races, than chase an elusive dream of winning GT stages. Send the right riders to the right places. Drop races where you can't do anything unless it's mandatory.

 

[Samamba]

Why would you assume i would have them ride all the races? They have a group of fairly talented young climbers who could get decent results in minor races, which could add up to a very nice bonus of UCI points. Imho it's a better strategy to maximize points in smaller races, than chase an elusive dream of winning GT stages. Send the right riders to the right places. Drop races where you can't do anything unless it's mandatory.

They have dropped every single race where they can't do anything that's not WT?
They still need to send teams to those hard WT races. That's were those "talented" climbers are needed. And riding those hard WT races + smaller stage races is just impossible.

They did your strat earlier in the season with Saudi Tour and Turkey, they changed it up now by going for more one day races instead. They don't think (and I agree) they can do both with the amount of fit riders they have.

BTW, I do agree that those young riders would benefit from riding those smaller stage races and get more points there. They're basically useless in WT races (apart from Cras and Van Gils maybe) right now, but it's just that LTS opted to do more small one day races as they give you easy points and they don't want to start with 5 riders in those. In an ideal world they wouldn't have 3 riders not riding all year and some broken bones and a lot of sicknesses so that they could ride more triple schedules (with smaller stage races), but that's not the case.

 

[Bonimenier]

They should start and sprint with both De Lie and Ewan in Eschborn, but they rather let Ewan score minor points in GT stages.

 

[Samamba]

They should start and sprint with both De Lie and Ewan in Eschborn, but they rather let Ewan score minor points in GT stages.

Ewan going to GTs is a personal goal and also incredibly important for sponsors. The thing is that he could perfectly ride Frankfurt and start the Giro, so yeah both should be riding and I have no idea why they're not doing it.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

They have dropped every single race where they can't do anything that's not WT (cause they can't drop them)?
They still need to send teams to those hard WT races. That's were those talented climbers are needed. And riding those hard WT races + smaller stage races is just impossible.

That's where i think you are wrong. When you send Cras to - say - the Dauphiné, what will he achieve there? Top 15 GC? Fourth in a stage from a break? Let's say he gets a 15th spot and 5th in a stage. What does that mean in UCI points? Only 35 Points. Now send Cras to Adriatica Ionica where he is almost guaranteed to ride top 5 or better and has a realistic shot to finish a stage in top 3. That would earn him 53 UCI points if he finishes 5th + one stage top 3. If he finishes 3rd (still very possible in that race) he goes home with 73 UCI points. Now do the same with Van Gils, Moniquet etc, and you'll see sending them to smaller races instead might be much more interesting. They can send a team for stagewins with Ewan, Wellens, De Gendt, De Lie... to other races.

 

[Lexman]

It's incredible a guy like De Gendt hwo is real popular and an attractive rider hasn't gathered one UCI point this year for the team...Gilbert about 60 points they are just dead weight for the team... I agree wwith sending a young motivated team to smaller races where they can win and score high GC places... look how Cofidis and Arkea do it...

 

[Samamba]

That's where i think you are wrong. When you send Cras to - say - the Dauphiné, what will he achieve there? Top 15 GC? Fourth in a stage from a break? Let's say he gets a 15th spot and 5th in a stage. What does that mean in UCI points? Only 35 Points. Now send Cras to Adriatica Ionica where he is almost guaranteed to ride top 5 or better and has a realistic shot to finish a stage in top 3. That would earn him 53 UCI points if he finishes 5th + one stage top 3. If he finishes 3rd (still very possible in that race) he goes home with 73 UCI points. Now do the same with Van Gils, Moniquet etc, and you'll see sending them to smaller races instead might be much more interesting. They can send a team for stagewins with Ewan, Wellens, De Gendt, De Lie... to other races.

Look I'm not going to keep repeating myself. This is dumb. I simply think focussing on riding a lot of one day races is way better for getting points than letting your - let's be honest - mediocre climbers ride some smaller stage races to get a top 5. In an ideal world, you combine both, but with them being obligated to ride WT stage races and having a lot of "non fit riders" this is simply impossible. They would need to ride a triple schedule almost every week and that's just unrealistic. Noone is saying those climbers are going to get more points in WT stage races than in the smaller ones.

It's incredible a guy like De Gendt hwo is real popular and an attractive rider hasn't gathered one UCI point this year for the team...Gilbert about 60 points they are just dead weight for the team... I agree wwith sending a young motivated team to smaller races where they can win and score high GC places... look how Cofidis and Arkea do it...

Cofidis and Arkea get a massive amount of points in french one day races (look at Becanson/doubs) for example, not that many in stage races (same for Wanty before this season).
People are focussing way too much on their so called bad scheduling, when the real reason they're in throuble is simply because they're giving Gilbert 4 mil for 3 years when he doesn't give you anything back. That and Ewan not performing because of bad luck primarely.

De Gendt is popular because of his attacking style, but he doesn't have the legs to do that anymore. He's nothing more than a dom right now. I think he calls it quits at the end of the season.