After weeks of uncertainty, the merger between the Lotto team and Intermarché-Wanty is finally official, making it the third Belgian WorldTeam—after Soudal Quick-Step and Alpecin-Premier Tech—to have its affairs in order for 2026. In a single press release, the team communicated all preliminary details, so we list what we now know.
It must be said: after the promising announcement about the merger in the summer, not all news in recent weeks and months has been positive. Especially regarding communication with the riders and staff, several less flattering details came to light. Together, Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty already had 43 riders under contract for 2026. That was 13 too many according to UCI rules, causing much uncertainty about who would stay and who would not. Stories from disgruntled riders and dissatisfied staff unsure of their fate also made it into the media.
Soon after signing the letter of intent, it became clear they would proceed using Lotto's license, Riders from Intermarché-Wanty who couldn't be accommodated and found no other teams still had a large portion of their salaries outstanding. Those negotiations did not go smoothly. Additionally, Intermarché-Wanty had a debt mountain of no less than 2.5 million euros on the books, and the last wrinkles with the hesitant sponsor Intermarché needed smoothing out.
By mid-October, we received confirmation that the license application with the UCI was done through the merger project. Now that Lotto Intermarché officially received the green light from the cycling union this afternoon and has been included in the list of WorldTeams for the next three seasons, the lineups for the pro team (30 riders), women's team (14 riders), and development team (20 riders) are definitively set.
But for now, communication will remain limited to this, the team says in its press release. “The team roster of the three teams under the Captains of Cycling structure of Lotto-Intermarché has now been confirmed,” it reads. “In the coming weeks, the integration of Intermarché-Wanty within Captains of Cycling will be completed. To ensure a smooth process, this press release is currently the only communication. Meanwhile, the team is preparing everything to officially present Lotto-Intermarché to the public on January 12 at the service course in Temse.”
That is open to debate. Although — partly due to the uncertainty within the team — some Lotto leaders were approached, riders under contract could not leave so easily. Lennert Van Eetvelt and Arnaud De Lie remain loyal to the team and will be the leadership respectively in stage races and classics. The young prodigy Jarno Widar joins the development squad and, given his status as a super talent, is expected to make an immediate impact. He will get his chance in the Giro d'Italia, with the other two likely to race the Tour de France. In this respect, the team is stronger.
Also, young support riders and talents like Jenno Berckmoes, Steffen De Schuyteneer, and Milan Menten have stayed on Lotto’s side. The same goes for top talents Matys Grisel and Mathieu Kockelmann. This stands in stark contrast to a year ago, when, according to their own account, the team was attacked in the winter and lost Maxim Van Gils, Victor Campenaerts, and Florian Vermeersch. Now, the departures of Brent Van Moer (Q36.5) and Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) seem to hurt the most. Elia Viviani, meanwhile, has retired.
From the Intermarché-Wanty core, a total of ten riders are making the step up to the brand-new WorldTeam, but they have seen some of their biggest guns like Biniam Girmay (NSN), Louis Barré (Visma | Lease a Bike), Laurenz Rex (Soudal Quick-Step), Arne Marit (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Gerben Thijssen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) take advantage of their contract-free status elsewhere. Especially the first three were riders that Lotto had always wanted to bring in and who would have truly strengthened the team.
On the other hand, Girmay was certainly a high-cost rider who may have been just a bit too inconsistent for that price. The team management did handle things well: young talents like Felix Ørn-Kristoff, Huub Artz — both former European champions at junior level — and Simone Gualdi are part of the new core. Added to that (and very much needed) climber types like Georg Zimmermann and Lorenzo Rota, plus classics riders such as Taco van der Hoorn, Luca Van Boven, Jonas Rutsch, and Vito Braet, we get an interesting team that focuses on young and promising talent.
Moreover, there is naturally more financial muscle. By joining forces, both the teams backing Lotto and Intermarché have secured a second title sponsor and can operate with a bigger budget than they would as separate teams. Wanty becomes title sponsor of the Devo Team. Regular Lotto partners like Orbea, Vermarc Sport, Ekoï, and Caps are participating in the new project. Intermarché gets an extra touch: to further highlight the new team’s international character, they will race in France, Poland, and Portugal wearing the Intermarché-Lotto jersey, the 'reversed' version of the regular kit.
For most riders who couldn’t or didn’t want to stay, a solution has now been found. From the Lotto side, 24-year-old New Zealander Logan Currie and 24-year-old sprinter Jarne Van de Paar no longer have ongoing contracts and have not yet found new teams. The same applies on the women's side for Julie Nicolaes (21) and Lucy Bénézet Minns (19).
The outlook looks especially bleak for Van de Paar: despite his promising early years with a Belgian under-23 title and sprint win in the GP Monseré, he was sidelined last year with knee problems. Van de Paar only finished one UCI race and postponed his comeback several times, only returning at the very end of the year at the Sluitingsprijs Putte Kapellen. He fears the search for a new team in 2026 will be hopeless, especially now that almost all the last spots are taken.
Within the 2025 Intermarché-Wanty roster, four riders still have no certainty. Officially, that is, because climber Kamiel Bonneu confirmed his new team will soon be announced. Lead-out man Gijs Van Hoecke says he still has no team for 2026, while Kobe Goossens, after extensive injury troubles, must slowly fear for the end of his career. This year, also due to knee problems, he raced fewer than twenty days, with his last race now dating back to June. A pity for Goossens who has been considered a major climbing talent.
Also remaining uncertain is New Zealander Dion Smith, already 32 but still the winner of the Volta NXT Classic earlier this year. He even had a running contract for 2026, which the team will have to honor if he does not find a new deal. Furthermore, it’s questionable whether 26-year-old Italian Kevin Colleoni still has a future in the peloton. In terms of results, he never really stood out in his five pro years, initially with Jayco AlUla.
Although the initiative for the merger came from National Lottery boss Jannie Haek, the team’s management now consists of Jean-François Bourlart as CEO, Kurt Van de Wouwer as sports manager, and Aike Visbeek as performance manager. Lotto CEO Stéphane Heulot has stepped away from the scene. The team has not confirmed who the other team directors will be. Apart from Bourlart and Visbeek, the majority of the sports staff will come from the Intermarché-Wanty side.
This is partly because many Lotto team directors are moving to other teams. From the core group of directors, only Mario Aerts remains besides Van de Wouwer. Nikolas Maes, together with Alec Segaert, is moving to Bahrain Victorious; Dirk Demol (Flanders-Baloise) and Tony Gallopin (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) have also confirmed their new destinations. Marc Wauters is retiring after fifteen years of loyal service. This opens up quite a few positions among the team directors.
Regarding the permanent Intermarché-Wanty directors, Dimitri Claeys will move with Biniam Girmay to Israel’s successor NSN Cycling Team, and the Walloon Sébastien Demarbaix is heading to Cofidis. Adriaan Helmantel has chosen an adventure with Tudor. Bart Wellens has already confirmed he will stay, and Pieter Vanspeybrouck will also be on board in 2026. There is still some uncertainty about Franky Van Haesebroucke, Frederik Veuchelen, Kévin Van Melsen, and Steven De Neef, but they are expected to remain.
There is also a new name to mention. Zico Waeytens, a pro rider between 2012 and 2019 and once part of Lotto’s youth academy, will now coach the youth teams, supplemented with some days at the pro team. Waeytens was already working at Lotto as a VIP chauffeur and is now being promoted.
In recent weeks, we heard reports that both teams might keep their own development squads, meaning the merged Lotto-Intermarché would have two Devo Teams under its banner. That news is now outdated. Lotto remains the 'paying agent' for the development team that over the years has promoted more than 25 riders to the top categories, and was even able to transfer Lorenz Van de Wynkele — who actually still had one year left on his WorldTeam contract — to reach its maximum of thirty WorldTour pros. A second development team proved unnecessary to complete the puzzle.
Van de Wynkele, like the 19 other riders, can regularly be deployed in races below WorldTour level according to the UCI mix rule. The 20-year-old Milan Donie, who was also expected to turn pro, faces the same fate. Moreover, we see that four others have moved from Wanty-Nippo-ReUz, while at least seven riders from that team remain uncertain.
The partnership with Deschacht-Hens is expected to continue, as was confirmed to us a while ago. In recent years, Lotto has shared riders with that team such as Toon Aerts, Victor Van de Putte, and women riders Ilken Seynaeve and Sterre Vervloet. Now, the young all-rounder Keije Solen can be added, while Julie Brouwers can become an additional spearhead in the women's team.
It took a long time for everything to be finalized - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
Jarno Widar is becoming one of the new leaders - photo: Cor Vos
Girmay could have become a teammate of De Lie - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
Jean-François Bourlart (right) with Aike Visbeek - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
