CyclingLotto takes a different tack. Manager John Lelangue (51) will no longer be at the head of the team next year. The chemistry is gone, the relegation from the WorldTour may be the sad end point. Axel Merckx (50) is in the picture to take over the (sporting) tasks. Marc Sergeant (63), who was thanked last year for services rendered, lashes out hard at Lelangue on Twitter.
Will Axel Merckx soon be given ultimate sporting responsibility at Lotto? That’s what it seems to be going for. Merckx fits the profile that the team is looking for: he is bilingual, is popular in both the north and south of the country and he knows the course. Merckx, who has lived in Belgium again since his divorce, has been manager of the American U23 team Hagens Berman Axeon for years. That experience is a great asset, as Lotto will continue to focus strongly on young talents in the coming years.
Negotiations are underway and appear to be moving in the right direction. It is not entirely clear what the eventual title of Merckx will be. Will he be a general manager, like Lelangue, or will he focus purely on the sport? For commercial and financial matters, he can in any case fall back on Yana Seel, the chief business officer of the team. She will be heading the squad alongside Lelangue for the next three months “to make the transition smoother.” A temporary solution, because it is not the intention for Seel to become CEO afterwards. “I don’t know enough about sports for that,” she said internally.
The name of Philippe Gilbert (40) also circulated yesterday. He is in his final weeks as a rider and has a number of qualities on par with Merckx, but Gilbert said he was “not asked for the position of team manager.”
Mission accomplished
Whoever the new CEO will be, it is clear that a lot will change at Lotto-Dstny, as the team will be called next year. John Lelangue was with the team for four years and says that “his mission was accomplished”, but that is reminiscent of how Georges ‘my work is 99 percent done’ Leekens said goodbye to the Red Devils at the time: there remains a yard behind. The merit of Lelangue is that he allowed a lot of youth to flow through, but that was forced: the team never had the necessary clout. Today, the relegation from the WorldTour is de facto unavoidable. Lotto will need wildcards for the next three years to be allowed to ride the biggest races. Not a pretty ending. Lelangue says he made the decision himself not to renew his expiring contract. The team sticks to a divorce “by mutual agreement”. Anyway, the story was over.
Sergeant with sharp tweet
Who commented on Lelangue’s departure: Marc Sergeant. He was thanked, together with Herman Frison, for services rendered last year after two decades with the team. Now Sergeant unpacks with a strong tweet:
“Imagine, you get a nice ship, it was well maintained for decades and yet you start to make a hole in it. But if it’s sinking, get a new other boat first and then quickly leave the sinking ship. #mission successful #outrageous”
Marc Sergeant
@marc_sergeant
It’s storming at Lotto-Soudal (bis): Lelangue’s right hand resigns
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
