"We will once again skip the Giro, even if I had desire to start" - Lotto Dstny forfeit Giro d'Italia wildcard as the team is not ready to take on three Grand Tours
Cycling
The most successful ProTeam of the 2024 season, Lotto Dstny, will not participate at the Giro d'Italia also in their third (and last) season at PRT level.
"There will only be 25 of us next year, there were 28 of us this year. Obviously, the calendar is a little reduced and adapted to our abilities," CEO Stéphane Heulot explains to Cyclism'Actu. "We will once again skip the Giro, even if I had this desire at the beginning of the year to be able to start the return to the WorldTour by trying to chain the three Grand Tours."
Therefore Lotto Dstny will only tackle the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in 2025. Especially for the French Grand Tour, the ambitions are high with both stars Arnaud De Lie and Lennert Van Eetvelt projected to be at the start.
Rocking the National champion jersey, De Lie finished in the top-5 of sprint five times, including two third places. Not a bad debut but Heulot believes the race wasn't really cut out for the Walloon. "Arnaud De Lie is not a pure sprinter so I want to say that the more bumpy it is, the better. Obviously, I'm talking about the finish, not in the mountains. Things were done in such a way that it broke up the peloton a little, so I think Arnaud is one of the sprinters capable of getting through these difficulties."
Heulot's also very optimistic about his mountain leader Van Eetvelt who had to battle through several health setbacks in 2024. "We also have Lennert Van Eetvelt, who we hope will be spared in 2025 from all the injuries he had, because despite that, he still won two WorldTour stage races this year. He will make his debut in the Tour de France, to aim for the general classification, I don't know, probably more to discover and try to go for the targeted stages."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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