Lotto team CEO Stephane Heulot hopes to bounce-back with a new sponsor with view of WT return: "It would be great to have news by the Tour de France"
Cycling
Lotto is one of the teams with tightest budgets at the professional level. The traditional Belgian formation has been struggling to find a stable co-sponsor for few years now and now enters the 2025 season with the lottery company as lone title sponsor. CEO Stephane Heulot knows very well that in order to fulfill their dream of WorldTour comeback, more will be necessary. Not only money-wise, but also on the human side.
"As with every year, the counter is set to zero," Heulot said in a press release. "You must always approach a cycling season with humility. Our group has changed significantly, so we’ll see how things unfold. But we’re determined to continue along the positive path we started on last year."
That path included 25 triumphs over the course of 2024, with highlights such as a Belgian national championship, overall victories in the UAE Tour and the Tour of Guangxi, and a stage win in the Tour de France.
"Thanks to all our great performances, we’ve been in the UCI World Ranking top 10 for two years now. The points we’ve accumulated exceeded our expectations. Even with a team that seems less strong on paper, we aim to maintain our position. We’ll try to achieve this by adding more one-day races to our calendar. For example, we won’t compete in the Giro d’Italia, Paris-Nice, or Tirreno Adriatico, as we hope to gather more UCI points in one-day races. Our ultimate goal remains to return to the World Tour in 2026."
In the meantime, the Belgian PRT team is hoping to attract interest of a much-needed new co-sponsor which would back their WorldTour ambitions. "Of course, we are eager to welcome new partners. It takes time, and these are not the easiest economic times, but we remain confident in the value of our team. It would be great to have news by the Tour de France. In the meantime, we are fortunate to have the continued support of Lotto and our other sponsors."
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- oh, crap, maybe i’m OBSESSIVE! i’ll have to spend some time thinking about that, over and over, as if it were a looped tape, playing in over and over and over in my head, forever…OCexile05-01-2025
- A far more interesting article would have been Patrick complaining of MVDP being as or more popular than Remco ;-) but it may be too late now, I get the feeling the tables turned after the summer.Mistermaumau05-01-2025
- I’d like to see him trying some more 1 week hilly stage races, think that might be a more interesting challenge for him. I get it for the TdF, it’s not because it’s the biggest race that everyone has to go for or like it, like many things in life. And when you race as much and as often as him, there’s sound logic to avoiding 3 weeks of musical chairs.Mistermaumau05-01-2025
- Sorry for Michael and his recent “outburst” but every year we see WVA & MVDP making the others look like amateurs even though they’re the ones who can’t focus purely on xc all year. You can’t then moan about them getting more attention, no matter how many races you enter.Mistermaumau05-01-2025
- On the road at the speed they often pass (other than steep climbs) it’s virtually impossible to identify 90% of riders in a group (unless you’re obsessive), luckily in xc there are fewer riders, less bunched and they’re slower so it’s less of a problem to set them apart.Mistermaumau05-01-2025
- Correct, creates engagement.awp05-01-2025
- Born in Flanders ;-)Mistermaumau05-01-2025
- And they do tend to pick out articles and info that they hope will lead to that ;-)Mistermaumau05-01-2025
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- i got the feeling that after mvdp won the glasgow world’s, there were more than a few of the flemish faithful who wanted to claim mathieu as their own for having been born in belgium.OCexile05-01-2025