Just reading that Lotto is lining up their old horse and former super hero Philippe Gilbert for Roubaix, 39, even though he is far from healthy. Reason, they are in a major crunch to avoid Worldtour relegation and are living day to day as Gilbert put it. No vision for the future. Haven't read much about the 2023-2025 world tour updates in english sites yet, but the crunch is on big time this year, with Lotto sitting near the very bottom of current World Tour teams. Interesting graphics at bottom of this page, based on current rankings, Cofodis would be last one in: https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/promotie-degradatie-cofidis-duwt-lotto-soudal-dieper-de-degradatiezone-in-ef-educatin-easypost-heeft-het-zwaar/
My guess is that Lotto is headed for the exit and AF (DAF) will become the second Belgian World Tour team. The Roodhooft brothers are ambitious and already have new youth signings for next year. Plus VDPs injury showed that you can't just bank on gathering UCI points for participating in big races; the only guarantee comes from a worldtour license. |