Stéphane Heulot was dismissed by the Lotto team a few weeks ago because there was no longer a place for him in the new merged team. In Cyclism'Actu, he now targets Jannie Haek, CEO of De Lotto. Heulot is critical of his approach. The Frenchman himself was involved in controversy last year due to financial issues and intimidation directed at riders.
According to the former team manager, his dismissal had nothing to do with the merger between Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty, but with the difficult relationship he had with Haek. The merger plans that the latter revealed to Heulot during the Tour de France struck a chord in the wrong way with the Frenchman, who claims he left the team on his own accord. Sources had previously told us that it was actually a dismissal. “I had my doubts for a while, but I decided to quit because of what happened during the Tour. In the second week of the Tour, I was in Brittany to finalize talks with sponsors willing to support us.”
“After the agreements were made, I called the board to present the project,” Heulot continues. “There, the CEO of the Lottery told me I was too late, that a collaboration with Intermarché-Wanty was already underway. I was stunned. We were going to announce the co-sponsor on the Tour’s second rest day. Everything was ready. The sponsor didn’t understand this completely different strategy. From that moment on, nothing was certain anymore. I decided to quit. My departure was official on September 30, but between the Tour and that date, I only handled the administrative transition.”
According to the Frenchman, not everyone at his former team shared the same values. “My patience ran out. I’m not surprised that I was excluded from the merger. That’s typical of the people who made those decisions. There’s little human value in this process,” he lashes out at Haek. Heulot also felt unsupported in his task to get Arnaud De Lie back to form when he struggled in the spring of 2024 and 2025. Since the last Tour, De Lie seems back on track.
“I think I have fulfilled my mission,” he goes on. “I joined a team that was disorganized on every level: financially, materially, and humanly. There was no structure left. It was a huge project. The team had just been taken over and had to be rebuilt. I encountered a board and a Lottery official who interfered in everything… If you read the press, you quickly understand that working with some people was not easy.”
Lotto CEO Jannie Haek - photo: fotopersburo Cor Vos
Heulot himself discredited
Strong criticism directed at Haek, then. This is not the first time. But Heulot himself is no blank slate, as was revealed a year ago. Back then, WielerFlits published an article exposing serious financial problems and harassment by Heulot towards riders that created an intimidating atmosphere within the Belgian team. Sporting manager Kurt Van de Wouwer also did not get off lightly at the time. Heulot was close to securing supermarket chain Carrefour as a second title sponsor back then, but that deal fell through.
