2025 season review | Intermarché - Wanty: 4 wins; Girmay fails to succeed as team goes under into Lotto merger

The 2025 season proved to be a challenging campaign for Intermarche – Wanty. After riding a wave of momentum the previous year, particularly thanks to Biniam Girmay’s historic 2024, the Belgian WorldTour team found 2025 far tougher, with close calls, scattered highlights, and an overall results sheet that reflected a season spent fighting without much reward. Their year included gritty rides in the spring classics, combative Grand Tour efforts, and a wave of roster changes driven by circumstances far beyond the race course. This review breaks down how Intermarche – Wanty performed and where the season ultimately left them.

Intermarche – Wanty built its reputation as a scrappy WorldTour outfit capable of punching above its weight. Their identity revolves around opportunistic racing, collective strength, and riders who thrive in underdog scenarios. Chief among them is Biniam Girmay, the Eritrean star whose previous seasons included history-making wins and a brilliant Tour de France green jersey. The team entered the new year hoping to maintain their rise, but the challenges proved greater than expected.

The team won only four races in 2025, their lowest total since joining the WorldTour. None of those wins came at WorldTour level. This sharp drop from their 13 victories in 2024 highlighted a regression that became more apparent as the season went on. The downward movement in the rankings stood in contrast to the previous year’s progress and raised questions about both performance and depth.

The wins they did take, Dion Smith’s early-season Volta NXT Classic, Zimmermann’s overall victory at the Giro d’Abruzzo, Zimmermann’s German national championship, and a late-season stage at the Tour de Kyushu, offered glimpses of promise. But at the highest level, the team struggled to convert their efforts into major results. And, Biniam Girmay has still not won a race since the 2024 Tour de France.

At Milano-Sanremo, Girmay looked sharp but couldn’t break into the top ten, finishing 14th. It was a respectable ride given the Monument’s unpredictable nature, but not the breakthrough the team hoped for.

Across the cobbled classics, Intermarché delivered some of their most encouraging performances of the year. Gent–Wevelgem, a race Girmay famously won in 2022, again highlighted his talent as he sprinted to seventh. Yet, despite their strong positioning, the decisive moves always seemed just out of reach.

At the Tour of Flanders, the squad couldn’t influence the front of the race, with Mathieu van der Poel & Tadej Pogacar simply on another level to the rest. The Ronde’s relentless bergs and brutal tempo proved a notch too high for a podium bid. Paris–Roubaix, however, became the standout race of Intermarché’s spring. Jonas Rutsch produced one of the best rides of his career, attacking early and surviving the day’s chaos to take sixth at the velodrome. Rex backed him up with tenth, and Girmay added 15th to round out a remarkable collective performance. Having two riders in the top ten of Roubaix is a success for any team, let alone one of Intermarché’s size. This was their clearest display of strength and cohesion in a major one-day race, even without a podium.

In the Ardennes, the rise of Louis Barré offered one of the year’s biggest positives. His sixth place at Amstel Gold Race was an excellent breakthrough, and his active racing across the spring gave the team new spark. He also finished 25th in Liège, reinforcing his potential as a future classics leader.

Still, the spring campaign yielded zero victories and no podiums in major classics. Girmay had several near misses but couldn’t convert, often caught in situations where he lacked the dedicated lead-out or support needed to challenge the strongest teams. The underlying theme was clear: Intermarche – Wanty could place multiple riders inside the top ten in big races, but they lacked the final punch to win them.

With no dedicated GC star, the team backed Louis Meintjes at the Giro d’Italia, hoping he could deliver another steady top-10 or top-15 finish. Meintjes produced a solid ride but never threatened the top names, ultimately finishing just inside the top twenty. Breakaway attempts from riders like Simone Petilli brought energy to the race but no tangible results. The Giro closed with zero stage wins and no significant GC impact.

After the magic of 2024, where Girmay won three stages and the green jersey, expectations were high. This year, the Tour became a long series of near misses. On Stage 1, Girmay was fractions of a wheel away from victory, finishing second behind Jasper Philipsen. His reaction, proud yet clearly frustrated, summed up the team’s Tour. He wore the white jersey briefly and added several more top-fives, but support issues hampered his chances. Girmay repeatedly found himself isolated in sprint finales, improvising rather than being delivered by a train. The team left France winless and without a GC presence, a bleak contrast to the previous year.

The Vuelta became the farewell Grand Tour for Meintjes and the final chance to salvage a GT win. Meintjes rode steadily to 16th overall, an admirable result but not a headline. Breakaway attempts dominated the team’s strategy, but none converted. As fatigue and uncertainty built, the Vuelta closed out Intermarché’s grand tour season the same way the Giro and Tour had: with no victories.

Across all three Grand Tours, Intermarché–Wanty finished with zero stage wins, one near-miss through Girmay, and two minor GC placements. The contrast with their past successes underscored how challenging 2025 had become.

The end of the season brought seismic changes. Intermarche – Wanty entered a merger with Lotto, creating a combined Belgian squad for 2026. This triggered an exodus of riders.

Louis Barré, one of their brightest performers, departed for Visma Lease a Bike. Hugo Page moved to Cofidis. Gerben Thijssen left for Alpecin–Deceuninck, where he’ll join a powerhouse sprint setup, and Alexander Kamp moved to Uno-X.

The future of Girmay remained uncertain as the team transitioned. With finances shifting, his contract situation became one of the biggest question marks of the offseason, with most signs pointing to him joining the former Israel – Premier Tech team.

Incoming talent will come through the merged Lotto – Intermarché structure, with Lotto’s roster providing the backbone, including sprint sensation Arnaud De Lie. Intermarché’s trademark spirit risks getting diluted, but the combined team may have a stronger foundation overall.

Intermarché–Wanty’s 2025 season lands at a 4 out of 10, to match their 4 wins throughout the year. They fought hard, delivered strong collective showings at Roubaix, and produced promising performances from riders like Barré and Zimmermann. But the lack of wins, the absence of WorldTour victories, the last-place ranking, and the quiet Grand Tours made this a clear step backward. There were positives, but too few major results to offset the tougher stretches.

With a merger on the horizon and a roster in flux, 2026 will be a fresh start, and one the team will badly need after a difficult season spent chasing but rarely catching the breakthrough moments they’re capable of.

Looking back at Intermarche – Wanty’s 2025 season, it honestly felt like a year where the effort far outweighed the results. I kept waiting for that one breakthrough moment, especially from Girmay, but the big wins just never came. The team fought hard in the classics, and that Paris–Roubaix performance genuinely impressed me, yet the Grand Tours were tough to watch with all the near misses. What really hit hardest was how much the merger overshadowed everything. For me, 2025 felt like the end of an era.

Intermarché is a team I cannot pity. I am aware that their budget is low in comparison to the average World Tour team, but there are teams of similar budget who vastly outperformed it. 2025 was just a failed year, I don't blame it for the team's 'end' (not literal, it is a merger at the end of the day) but Intermarché gave nothing this year and there's no point in using money as a justification for this.

The team put 1 big bet, on Biniam Girmay. This was a brilliant bet, and 2024 was a stellar year with his Tour de France as the highlight, but the team pulling in decent UCI points and some more victories that stuck to mind. In 2025 the team won four times, one of them a national championships, one in a point-chasing Japanese race in October and two more in the spring. None at World Tour level or even .Pro level, the team's top victory this year was... Georg Zimmermann's Giro d'Abruzzo GC, where his competitors were ProTeam riders and a 19-year old Pablo Torres. This is a World Tour team, and it was the one that performed the worst in 2025, even below Arkéa who stood out in the summer despite knowing their end was certain.

Intermarché simply does not have the level of a World Tour team in the modern peloton. The team did not haave a single GC rider who could be competitive at this level, it lack a single time trialist and honestly the classics riders can only be competitive in the non-World Tour scene. Biniam Girmay had the weight on his shoulders and with him lacking a single win throughout the entire year, then the team had nothing to show for. Girmay did not have a BAD year, but he didn't match the sky-high level of 2024. He finished 7th at Gent Wevelgem, showed great classics form (for example 15th at Paris-Roubaix), was second at the opening stage of the Tour de France... He was there, but he simply didn't manage to net a win, which for a sprinter means everything at the end of the day.

The team ends its history with a bleak year. I give a 2 out of 10 because frankly there's almost nothing to take from it. The results that gave the team the most UCI points (100) was Zimmermann's Abruzzo GC win and Kamiel Bonneu's 7th place at the Tour of Guangxi GC. That just about says enough.