Several World Tour teams battle to buy out contract of two Lotto Dstny riders' contracts

Lotto Dstny is in recent years having an extraordinary development program, but with so much quality turning pro with the Belgian team it simply remains very hard to maintain it all with the current budget. Currently, both Maxim van Gils and Jarno Widar have deals with the team but we also have teams looking to buy out their contract.

This comes as no surprise, as the ProTeam has turned into an absolute factory of Belgian talent. Arnaud De Lie, Lennert van Eetvelt and Maxim van Gils are already proven winners at the top level; Jenno Berckmoes is starting to show his true colours at top level; three-time under-23 European time-trial Champion Alec Segaert recently finished second at the Renewi Tour and the team already have assured 18-year old Jarno Widar to join the elite team in 2026, one of the most prominent climbing talents in the world right now.

It is nothing short of impressive what is happening with the team, that is set to climb back to World Tour level in 2026, but they may not carry all of their talent over. Widar has the deep interest of Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe who are actively seeking to buy out his contract; as the German team recently acquired more budget and are focusing on young talents. Het Laatste Niuews reports however that Widar is not the only one in this situation.

We learn that Maxim van Gils - who was on the podium of Strade Bianche and Flèche Wallone; was fourth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and GP de Montréal; and has won Eschborn-Frankfurt this year - has two teams also looking to buy out his contract that currently stands until 2026. One of them, surprisingly, is Movistar, who are in search of new leaders after the departure of Alex Aranburu and Oier Lazkano.

The other is Astana Qazaqstan Team, who are also having renewed budget due to the entry of a new Chinese sponsor into next season. The Kazakh team is virtually doomed to be relegated next season due to their lack of UCI points and are currently making big signings in order to still have a chance of survival, and seemingly have the cash to make this hypothetically big move.