After the departures of Dstny and Van Gils, Lotto is preparing a transition season before returning, certainly, to the World Tour in 2026. But 2025 will be lightened in WT races and the De Lie-Van Eetvelt-Segaert trio will have big responsibilities. A look back at the big statements from the manager of the Belgian team, Stéphane Heulot.
Stéphane Heulot (Lotto): “Shine with Van Eetvelt and De Lie in the 2025 Tour de France”
Lotto's offseason has been rocky. While the Belgian Pro Team had an excellent 2024 season, finishing in 9th place UCI and extending its headliners with Arnaud De Lie, Maxim Van Gils and Lennert Van Eetvelt, it suffered two big blows: the withdrawal of Dstny, co-title sponsor, then the departure of Van Gils to RedBull Bora hansgrohe. Enough to greatly affect its 2025 season: with only 25 riders, Lotto refused invitations to Paris-Nice and the Dauphiné, where it had ambitions with its puncher. For the back-to-school day reserved for the media this Thursday, in which Vélofuté was able to participate, Stéphane Heulot, CEO of Lotto, appeared fatalistic to the press, while maintaining great motivation for 2025 and the preparation of the World Tour which is looming in 2026. Here are the main lessons from the intervention of the French manager.
-
The departure of Maxim Van Gils
“I really appreciate Maxim, like all the runners. I can understand the runner side and the fact that we have to have the best career. Anything can happen, an accident, a fall, you can also lose time. We had resigned at his request, I did not negotiate Maxim's proposal at the time because that's what he wanted, to be peaceful for the next three years, he felt good in the team. When we signed it, we said to ourselves that we had been quite generous, we were not aware of the development it was going to take so quickly, nor of getting a good deal. Afterwards things changed. I can't blame him, it hurts me for the team, because contracts are respected, because conversely when a rider is well paid but doesn't perform, there is no money back and that's it. It's like that. But today the agents have quite virulent attitudes. It touches me, I have affection for him. I regret not being able to accompany him further. […]
We had the possibility of blocking it, but what was the point? He doesn't run until July, August, and after? The purpose would have been the same. It's not in our values. […]
I understood that it was over when Maxim himself told me that he wanted to leave. Previously I had been contacted by his new agent after the Tour who told me that he wanted to renegotiate, which was not part of our plans. So I contacted his former agent to understand a little background. We couldn't renegotiate in 2025, and when Maxim told me, there you go, I have what I want and what I dream of. So there you have it, I wish him the best, he's a charming boy with lots of qualities. »
“The budgetary average in WT is €32 million. […] We’re not halfway there.”
-
The search for sponsors and the evolution of budgets in Cycling
“Cycling is progressing at incredible speed with colossal inflation. We are focusing on 4-5 teams today who are exploding the market, against whom we cannot align. Do we want to align elsewhere, I don't think so. Maybe a new model will open up. When we finish 9th in the world with the budget we have, we achieved 150% performance. The budgetary average in WT is €32 million, it was €20 million in 2021 and €28 million last year. We're not even halfway there. We have to find solutions, but this will remain in our values, we have managed to create something quite extraordinary. What can we do? Already in relation to Belgian law, which is quite permissive. You have to be resilient. […]
Concerning the search for a new sponsor, the problem we have today is that at the commercial level, nothing has been done for 2 years. When our manager arrived halfway through the year, we started with a blank slate. We have avenues, we are confident of being able to announce something before the start of the Tour, it is continuous and colossal work. The economic situation is not ideal, but our team is attractive and cycling is promising. We have candidates, we do a lot of canvassing and we see interest.
To exist at the WT level, we are missing quite a few things, we cannot reach €32 million, but we have to get close. Afterwards, if we remove 4-5 teams we are no longer that far away, but to be comfortable in the WT, you need €30 million today. »
“We were forced to review the calendar races in 2025 because Maxim was an important runner with ambitions for Paris-Nice and the Dauphiné. His departure handicaps us for these two races. We did not refuse more other races compared to last year, but that makes sense given the youth of the team and the objective of returning to the World Tour. We do not want to denigrate our values and our talents by putting them in every sauce. Lennert has a program focused on certain week-long stage races like Catalonia or the Tour de Suisse, which will be important axes for him. On the other side we will have Arnaud and his close guard who will be on the Classics, to shine on the semi-classics or even a Monument, but it is very complicated. Finally we have Alec Segaert who is growing and maturing, especially since he will be able to devote himself more and more to cycling, because he is still studying. I can't wait to see if all the planets align for the Tour with these three riders. We will try to be impactful on all these objectives that we have identified. »
“Arnaud wanted to try this altitude training formula, it didn't work, as it doesn't suit a runner like Mads Pedersen”
-
Arnaud De Lie's calendar
“Last year, Arnaud's complicated spring was an opportunity for him. Let's not forget that he is very young. It was kind of a break for him, in the sense that he had always been successful. But on the evening of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice, when I told him that he could pack his suitcase and go home, he broke down because he didn't understand. I told him, it's a difficult time, it's resilience but you have to know how to hit rock bottom to bounce back. And I think he did it perfectly.
It was a change in approach for the season: he wanted to try this altitude training formula, it didn't work, as it doesn't correspond to a runner like Mads Pedersen who resembles his profile. We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater, he has gained perspective and experience from this, he has learned well.
He will have neither Paris-Nice nor Tirreno to prepare for the classics, but many runners do not necessarily do that. Paris-Nice is not the best prep race. The objective is to do a very specific classic preparation, favoring freshness for the end of the campaign. »
-
Training and development team
“Scouting is for devo but it is not limited to very young people, like for all the other teams. But for devo, we have this quite exceptional niche thanks to the work of Kurt and his entire team and which is paying off today. But it becomes more and more complicated because the other teams are coming at our riders, we saw it with Jarno Widar, Steffen De Schuyteneer, with Mathys Grisel, we know that these are talents who must be given time. Today we know that we do not have the means to hire a top 5 or even top 10 in the world, on the other hand, we have the capacity to detect and train a future top 5 in the world. We follow this philosophy, which in my opinion works rather well, since we have had a second year in a row in the top 10.”
