With 13 World Team victories, a 15th place in the UCI team rankings, but also a Green Jersey brought back to Nice on the last Tour de France by Eritrean Biniam Girmay and a European Junior champion jersey won by the 22-year-old Dutchman Huub Artz2024 will remain a very successful season for training Intermarché-Wanty. On the occasion of the winter break, the general manager, Jean-François Bourlarttakes stock and is already looking ahead to next season, in the official press release from the Belgian team.
Video – Biniam Girmay… at the arrival of the 2024 Tour de France in Nice!
“Our long-term investment strategy in talent development is paying off.”
“This year 2024 will be remembered, not only for the 50th anniversary of the founding of VC Ath, but also and above all for the number of prestigious victories. These results are the reward for long-term work and our strategy development of young talents, but also the unfailing commitment of all the members of our team Our spring was not easy, with certainly great victories from Gerben Thijssen or Laurenz Rex, but also numerous falls during the races. classics, which sidelined Arne Marit, Gerben Thijssen or Biniam Girmay, for example, without counting the long absences of Taco Van der Hoorn or Kobe Goossens. However, we have always continued to work with the desire to shine during the period. 'summer”he explains.
“Obviously, the very first stage victory in the Tour de France for our team was a crowning achievement. The accomplishment of our project, which has progressed step by step over the years to finally triumph at the highest level of Cycling. But the following two stage victories and the green jersey above all showed that this was just another step in the development of our project. Our long-term investment strategy in talent development is working. its fruits We have been following Biniam Girmay for many years and, since his recruitment, we have established a long-term plan with objectives which mark his progress. These victories in the Tour de France call for more, why not in a first Monument. Alongside him, we have built a solid and promising team, including Hugo Page, Laurenz Rex, Huub Artz, Vito Braet, Dries De Pooter and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk.
“We are already building tomorrow’s generation…”
“We are already building the generation of tomorrow, with our Continental team, and for example the European titles of Huub Artz in the U23 category and Felix Ørn-Kristoff in the Junior category. But they are not alone, because young talents like Gualdi and Claisse are growing in their shadow. I am convinced that our approach, despite working with one of the smallest, but constantly increasing, budgets on the World Tour, remains the healthiest in the long term. also proud to be able to count on the support of our historic partners, with whom we have worked to ensure our future, both sporting and commercial.”he comments.
“We are also happy to welcome new partners, because the arrival of any new company interested in our project helps us grow. We can rely on a team built around the classics, in particular around Biniam Girmay, who is linked to our project until 2028. We are proud, with all the riders and the performance team, to fight every day to reach the summits and make the colors of our team and our partners shine. We have already started. preparing for the next season before meeting up in December for our first annual collective winter course. This will be an opportunity for the runners to discover our new colors and prepare for a 2025 season that I can't wait to start.concludes the Belgian general manager in the team's official press release Intermarché-Wanty.
