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.
💥 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