Lotto-Intermarché boss Jean-François Bourlart summed up the lengthy and sometimes tumultuous process of fusion between Intermarché-Wanty and Lotto this week, saying, “One thing's certain - I'm in no rush to do the same thing again.”
Bringing the ProTeam and WorldTour team under one roof was certainly not an easy operation. There were reports of financial difficulties, and riders and staff faced major uncertainty over their future - some were even let go only to be re-employed the following week. Former Lotto Thomas De Gendt, writing in his regular column for Cyclingnews, even went so far as to sum up his view of the fusion as "a bit of a shitshow."
