"Looking back, we are still glad we didn't ride the Giro" - Lotto Dstny happy with decision to skip Giro d'Italia

Number 10 in the team's ranking, Lotto Dstny, opted to not start this Giro d'Italia for a specific reason. In order to ensure invitations for World Tour events for next year, the Belgian team chose not to ride the Italian grand tour for the first time in 23 years and focused on winning as many points as possible in smaller races in France and Belgium.

"Looking back, we are still glad we didn't ride the Giro," says sporting director Kurt Van de Wouwer. "We knew from the past few years that we were having a hard time putting together a competitive team for the 3 Grand Tours."

During the Giro, Lotto Dstny collected a lot of points on other fronts, for example in one-day races in Belgium and France. "Our biggest scorers were Arnaud De Lie, who unfortunately was injured, and Milan Menten. But riders such as Florian Vermeersch and Brent Van Moer have also contributed."

Lotto Dstny eventually collected 1,406 points during the period of the Giro. "It would have been difficult to get the same number of points if we had ridden the Giro."

To be sure of participation in the grand tours and classics next year, Lotto Dstny must finish in the top 2 of the ProContinental teams this year. Biggest competitors - TotalEnergies (20th) and Israel - PremierTech (15th) - are still trailing by a large margin.