Maxim van Gils explains Lotto Dstny to BORA's sudden departure: "I really wanted to be on the train at the station before it left"
Cycling
Maxim van Gils was one of the biggest transfers of the winter, making a sudden departure from Lotto Dstny to join Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe. This ultimately comes down to the fact that he believes he's entering his prime years and wanted to be in the best possible team for the job.
"Now in WorldTour, the budgets are getting bigger and bigger. It's modern cycling, but still, teams with a smaller budget have to follow up. In a team like Lotto, you have to wait a few days sometimes for physio. Here you have someone waiting on the sofa, not doing nothing, but is ready to treat you," van Gils said in a press conference, as reported by Cyclingnews.
It's a very busy first few days with the German team and Van Gils, who will be focusing on the spring classics in these upcoming months, will be strongly joined by a team that is continuously evolving, in terms of budget and quality.
"Better teammates? Also, my teammates at Lotto were not bad. But they are young, and it's always difficult as a leader when you want to focus on and get the result, and not tell everybody what to do. I think it'll be easier with maybe a little bit stronger teammates." This year with the Belgian team, he scored tons of UCI points and was one of the top classics riders of the year, winning in the way the Eschborn-Frankfurt classic.
Still, breaking his contract months after renewing with Lotto was always going to be a big controversy, that opens up the door for more of these scenarios. There was no avoiding these questions at the press conference, but the Belgian rider explained his reasons: "Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are really growing. I really wanted to be on the train at the station before it left. I wanted to be here before the team was super big. I think it's a lot nicer to be in the process and see how the team grows. That's why I wanted the change now".
"They have lots of ambitions, and for me too, I'm still young, with a lot of personal goals, but also team goals. In the future, it's my dream to win a Grand Tour with the team as a teammate, not me, because I don't have the capacity to do this. But I want to be there and experience it. At Lotto, it will be never possible, and here it's still hard, but we can try," he concluded.
Read also
💥 A fresh look for 2025! 💥
— Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (@RBH_ProCycling) December 13, 2024
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe is excited to ride from head to toe with Specialized 👊🏼
Check it out here 👉🏼 https://t.co/ay8PgtcRIE pic.twitter.com/dPp41krjdK
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And yet, it attracts people, even you. What’s more, it attracts the rival fanboys to fill cyberspace with endless pointless my hero is better than your hero blabla that’s all been heard before and only helps sell the site as an advertising platform. You know what the solution is but most can’t resist. No different than women who follow and discuss celebs through gossip magazines.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
- "was a headliner at the Tour de France" Nobody cared about Piddie. Only rivals that were there for Pogi, Jonas, Remco, Sexias, Lipo, Del Toro and they were all expected to lose. Piddie was not even in any conversation.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- exactly, he had an amazing season, but with these overstatements they don‘t do him good.Ketterechts08-11-2026
Loading
1 Comments