OFFICIAL: Lotto bolster sprint ranks with signing of 9-time Grand Tour stage winner
Cycling
There were murmurs that Elia Viviani might be forced to retire from the professional peloton when his INEOS Grenadiers contract expired at the end of 2024. Thankfully for the experienced Italian though, whilst it may have taken time, he does now have a contract for the coming year at Lotto.
"I’m very happy to extend my career with Lotto," the Italian sprinter says enthusiastically, in a press release on his new team's official website. "First and foremost, I want to keep sprinting for victories, but I also want to share my experience with this young team. I’m ready to take on that role—giving my new teammates tips, whether they are sprinters or not, and helping them grow."
A nine-time Grand Tour stage winner, Viviani has had an incredibly successful career, both on the road and on the track. Whilst the now-36-year-old has seen victories harder to come by in the last few seasons, he and the Lotto Cycling Team are confident there is still a role to be played in the peloton by Viviani. "At 36, I’m still highly motivated. I’m still a sprinter. I want to win. After focusing on the Olympics and track cycling last summer, it wasn’t easy to find a team, as I hadn’t been able to prove myself on the road. But then Stéphane Heulot heard about my situation, and suddenly, the puzzle pieces fell into place," he adds. "My wife, Elena Cecchini, actually preceded me. She raced for Lotto in 2015 and was absolutely thrilled that I would be riding for the Belgian team (laughs)."
"I’ve known Elia Viviani for ten years- our paths have crossed at previous teams. That’s why I’m delighted to announce his arrival and welcome him to our team," Heulot himself commented. "Elia brings a wealth of experience that he can share with our young riders, and at the same time, I’m convinced he still has an important role to play in the sprints."
✍🏼 New Signing ✍🏼
— Lotto Cycling Team (@lottocycling_) February 20, 2025
We are delighted to welcome Elia Viviani to our team! 🇮🇹 The Italian sprinter has signed a one-year contract.
🔗 Read more: https://t.co/YrDCasV1Jm pic.twitter.com/dJCb7NvMrW
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- maybe. what makes that a LITTLE fishy is that they suddenly hit the gas and started hammering it. even mathieu, who i’ve never heard complain about ANYTHING (other than teenage girls waking him up and being spit on by belgians) was pretty hacked off about the race tactics after the split. i think he was upset for what his teammates had to do, not for the fact he ended up isolated as a result.OCexile31-03-2025
- It seems that in E3 it wasn’t legit to criticise teams that « took advantage » because there was no radio communication about the incident so they couldn’t know to slow down. Only one source so far but should be quite easy to verify.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- mads SMOKED it at ghent! love that guy. he’s just the best interview ever, always smart and hilarious and with a biting intolerance for stupidity. happy for him. just as a secondary thought, consider that mvdp beat THAT version of mads by a full minute at E3 two days ago. the gap between pog/mvdp and even tho other GREAT riders like mads is kinda staggering to comprehend. this is a time in cycling history that’s certainly worth paying attention to while it lasts.OCexile31-03-2025
- i watched the race. jasper and roodhooft have a legit anger about this. alpecin burned everyone to pull it back. they did the SAME THING after the split in E3, burning all their guys and thus leaving mathieu to fend for himself (which worked out ok because van der poel is van der poel, but still…). yeah, christopher and jasper should be a little pissed this time.OCexile30-03-2025
- Mads, Ganna, MvdP, Pogi were all in MSR, and will all be in both RVV and PR, the problem here is Remco because he doesn't race anything. This year because of injuries, before that, no idea why notvappaxbipmv30-03-2025
- Will it take oil money to get Mads, Remco, Tadej, Ganna and MVDP to line up for the same classic or monument or will Lady Luck help us with this one.Mistermaumau30-03-2025