After weeks of near-silence were broken on Friday by the confirmation of Biniam Girmay's departure from Intermarché-Wanty at the end of the season, quiet but solid progress on the squad's upcoming fusion with Lotto is now also reported to be taking place.
Criticisms of the prolonged uncertainty surrounding the futures of riders affected by the fusion had been made by CPA president Adam Hansen, partly as a result of the dearth of available information, former Lotto team manager Marc Sergeant described it to Dernière Heure as "a fiasco", and retired Lotto rider Thomas de Gendt, writing for Cyclingnews, directly described the ongoing situation surrounding the fusion as "a bit of a shit-show."
However, according to Het Laatste Nieuws, the teams' respective management had deliberately opted to take a low-profile approach about the upcoming fusion – and now, finally, some concrete details have emerged.
Quite apart from Girmay's long-expected exit, it's also emerged that the team will hold two training camps in Spain, HLN says, with the first running from December 6-20. Then there will be a team presentation on January 12 in the team's service course in Temse, Belgium, followed by a second training camp in Spain, starting January 13.
Describing the lack of news as "a compliment," Lotto's Gregory Maes – a board director in the team and member of the Captains of Cycling company which owns the team told the Belgian newspaper that "We always wanted to work discreetly."
"This is a scenario which isn't straightforward, and it's maybe a unique one in cycling."
While the team's 2026 bikes have already been delivered and the new jersey is '90% ready', according to the newspaper, the merger will likely not be officialised before the UCI announces the list of WorldTour teams for the next 2023-2025 cycle, expected shortly after the UCI WorldTour Congress on December 10.
It has also been reported by HLN that Intermarché-Wanty and Lotto's respective development teams will continue to exist as separate entities.
However, with some unspecified financial issues still unresolved, the newspaper concluded that "The fact is that there is still a lot to be 'cleaned up' and many [Intermarché-Wanty] riders and staff members, unlike Lotto, still don't know exactly where they stand at the moment."
