Things are looking up at Lotto-Dstny. The Belgian team was relegated from the WorldTour last season after finishing outside the top 18 teams during the last three-year ranking period, but with a new star on the rise, a new CEO, plus four wins and a top-10 ranking spot on the board through February, there’s positivity around the team in 2023.
Over the winter, the winds of change swept through the team, with 13 riders leaving and 11 newcomers signing up, while former Saur-Sojasun and Rally general manager Stéphane Heulot has taken over as CEO after John Lelangue’s departure and Kurt Van de Wouwer was promoted from directeur sportif to sports manager.
In conversation with Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab) this week, Heulot said that “positive enthusiasm” and giving team members the freedom to work has been key in starting Lotto’s turnaround, while the rise of young sprinter Arnaud De Lie hasn’t done any harm, either.
“I am not the only key leading to this success,” Heulot said. “The performance team has done a good job and sports manager Kurt Van de Wouwer knows the riders very well. We work fantastically together and have been able to transfer that positive spirit well to staff and riders.
“I can’t talk about the past, I wasn’t there. But positivity and enthusiasm are crucial to motivate riders. I have given people responsibility and trust, and they are given the freedom to do their job. If things aren’t right, I will correct them, but that is certainly not necessary for now.
“All riders are propelled forward by Arnaud De Lie’s positive input,” he added, referring to the team’s new star, who has already won three races this season. “We want to write a unique story with him and grow together to unprecedented heights.
“He is a top talent, a fantastic guy, who keeps his feet on the ground. Values and standards are very important to him. And he radiates that spirit, along with his enthusiasm and ambition, to the whole team.”
The 20-year-old Walloon is being hailed as the new crown prince of Belgian cycling, having picked up nine wins during his rookie campaign last season.
His successes so far in 2023 include an impressive hilltop victory ahead of Mads Pedersen and Benoît Cosnefroy at the Etoile de Bessèges, while he also finished second at Belgian season opener Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, confirming his Classics potential.
Already, Heulot and the team are planning on building around De Lie, and even talking with sponsors in order to lock him down for years to come.
“Whether we want to ‘break open’ his contract? Of course, we are thinking long-term with him; it would be stupid not to,” Heulot said. “It’s a budgetary issue, up to us to solve that problem as soon as possible. We are already talking to potentially interested sponsors. I’m not worried about that.
“I want to build with Arnaud. I have the same feeling about him as I had with Peter Sagan when he came flying into the cycling world like a comet,” Heulot added, echoing Thomas De Gendt’s recent sentiment. “So, it is our duty, with respect to the other riders, to build a team around him.
“We have to remain careful; he is still young, and we should not skip steps. Now is also not the time to talk to him about that – let him focus on the sporting side now. But our project is clear: we will do everything we can to keep him in the team for much longer.”
Bringing De Lie along carefully is the name of the game at Lotto. Directeur sportif Nikolas Maes told Cyclingnews at Opening Weekend that the youngster isn’t down to race a Grand Tour this year, and might not in 2024, either. He also won’t be racing a full Classics campaign just yet, though his debut Paris-Roubaix is the main goal for the remainder of the spring.
“Let’s say that when we took De Lie in the team last year, we knew he was capable of doing things, but if we knew his growing curve would be this steep, then no, we didn’t expect this,” Maes said after the finish of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
“We designed a growing curve for him for two or three years. We’re going to stick to it. Of course, we added Omloop now, and I think that was the right choice, but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to switch the whole programme for him and try to reach other goals. It’s quite clear where we want to go and at which time.”
It’s not all about De Lie, though. “If he doesn’t manage to attract an additional sponsor, I don’t know what will,” Maes told Het Nieuwsblad.
The team is also keeping track of the UCI rankings, which have gained interest like never before over the last half-year. As EF manager Jonathan Vaughters has said of his own team, Lotto-Dstny will race to win rather than racing with a focus on racking up ranking points, as was the case in 2022.
“We must not race with those points as the main objective,” Heulot said. “We have to race to win. It makes me happy when I see young riders like Lennert Van Eetvelt and Maxim Van Gils taking their chance.
“Of course, we will keep up with the ranking, but without putting extra pressure on that. The most important thing is that the riders race with confidence and eventually the points will come naturally.
“There will also be setbacks, and it will be important to give riders confidence even then, but I’m pretty sure that if we continue with this attitude then we shouldn’t worry. Because, finally, we belong in the World Tour.”