STÉPHANE HEULOT. «LOOKING FOR A SPONSOR TO JOIN LOTTO. DISAPPOINTED BY VAN GILS AND CONCERNED ABOUT THE MOVEMENT. WORLDTOUR? GOAL FOR 2026»
PROFESSIONALS | 04/01/2025 | 09:54 di Luca Galimberti The formations and programs of Lotto Equipe for 2025 were officially presented yesterday. On the sidelines of the event organized at the team's headquarters in Temse, Team Manager Stéphane Heulot was intercepted by our colleagues from RTBF and discussed several topics, and we present here the key passages of the interview.
SPONSORS AND BUDGET FOR 2025. "Currently, we do not have a second sponsor, but we are working intensively to find one or more companies interested in joining Lotto in naming the team. It's not a simple task; the sports world is not necessarily a priority for companies, and millions are not found by snapping your fingers. However, I am proud of the research work we are doing and honored to have a solid and important partner, the owner of the team, like the National Lottery of Belgium. Lotto allows us to have a substantially unchanged budget compared to last year, but obviously, it is not right to rely solely on this. I hope to announce something important before the Tour de France and add a new name during the season: in recent years, we have seen this done by several teams like Lidl Trek or Soudal, which became T-Rex for the Vuelta".
THE VAN GILS CASE. "I always have a lot of affection for my riders, and I still have it for Maxime even though he will no longer wear our jersey (he moved to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe). Obviously, I am a bit disappointed, and what struck me the most is that Maxime wanted to renew his contract at the beginning of the season, which was what he desired. We accepted it on his terms so that he would be comfortable. He had a magnificent season, and I wish him the same for this year. Certainly, we are a bit disappointed, but I know that a cycling career does not last many years and that an extremely attractive offer was made to him. However, I want to say that even if we had certain sums, we certainly would not have given them. I cannot deny that these situations worry me; I have talked about this with many other managers: today, we have four or five teams that are able to do almost anything financially. I also reason in the interest of the entire cycling movement; if tomorrow there are only four or five teams that monopolize everything, I think we will all lose a lot, and passion will inevitably decrease. But I hope I am wrong".
GOAL OF RETURNING TO THE WORLD TOUR. "Our main objective is to return to the World Tour from 2026; this is the common thread of all our activity. Certainly, the goal is to return to be protagonists and not just to 'survive'. We have a young team, and in the last two years, we have entered the top 10 of the UCI ranking. Even with a team that on paper seems less strong, we aim to maintain our position. We will try to achieve this goal by adding more one-day races to our calendar. For example, we will not participate in the Giro d'Italia, Paris-Nice, or Tirreno-Adriatico because we hope to collect more UCI points in one-day races. Our final objective remains returning to the World Tour in 2026; we have a great challenge ahead of us to re-enter the top category to do great things". Cover photo from the Lotto team website
La collaborazione tra Vision e CeramicSpeed è la classica collaborazione che crea magia pura, una magia che oggi piomba dritta sulle Metron 45-60 RS CeramicSpeed Edition, l’edizione limitata ed esclusiva che rappresenta al 100% la massima espressione tecnologica della piattaforma RS. per...
Stesso arrivo di ieri e stesso risultato al Tour of Thailand 2026. Come ventiquattro ore fa, infatti, ad esultare a Nong Khai, oggi traguardo di una frazione lunga 150, 2 chilometri partita da Phon Phisai, è stato Pierre Barbier,...
Chi altri se non Matteo Sobrero, langarolo doc di Montelupo Albese? Per presentare la tappa Barbaresco – Barolo con cui inizia la Settimana Coppi e Bartali 2026 occorre abbeverarsi - con moderazione - alla fonte autorevolissima del figlio di queste...
La scorsa settimana avevamo aperto con Cesare Benedetti, questa settimana chiudiamo con la seconda parte dell'intervista alla "bandiera" e oggi tecnico della Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe: una panoramica degli italiani del team, con tanto di endorsement ad Aleotti in vista...
Vincere la Regina delle Classiche è il sogno di una vita per un'intera categoria di corridori chiamati "Flandriens" così come per grandi campioni che attribuiscono particolare prestigio alla Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France. Ma oltre ai 95 diversi vincitori (5 per le donne),...
Non si tratta di una semplice stima e nemmeno di una comune valutazione, infatti, Pressure Map MyOwn, la naturale evoluzione del sistema Prologo, rappresenta la concreta possibilità di analizzare in modo scientifico le pressioni sulla sella ottenendo una mole di preziose...
Saranno le dolci - ma insidiose, attenzione! - colline delle Langhe ad ospitare la tappa imaugurale della Settimana Coppi & Bartali che si disputerà da oggi a domenica sulle strade del Nord Italia con le eccellenze enologiche a fare da...
Ha cambiato nome tante volte dal 1977 e adesso, in nome della sicurezza, per la 50a edizione lascia definitivamente De Panne e la costa per chiamarsi Tour of Bruges: è la nuova classica per velocisti del WorldTour che si corre...
Toni e la sua Graziella, grigia, urbana, vissuta, con campanello e portapacchi, e una sella tenuta così bassa da pedalare con le ginocchia in bocca. Toni e la sua Graziella per Rovigo, un labirinto di strade e piazze, un teatro...
Nalini annuncia l'attesissimo via alla nuova edizione del Nalini Road Series, il circuito ACSI che unisce passione per il ciclismo, sfide in sella e valorizzazione di territori forgiati per la bicicletta. Domenica 29 marzo si accenderanno i motori con una...
1
1
Ritratti
Oscar
Albi d'Oro
