The Lotto Belisol Ladies team.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Lars Bak leads the Lotto Belisol Team(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The back of the Lotto Belisol bus(Image credit: Susi Goetze)
Andre Greipel in the lead at Tour of Denmark(Image credit: CyclingPhoto.eu)
Lotto Belisol were thrilled by the news on Monday evening that they will be riding in the WorldTour in 2013. The Belgian team expected the top-ranked licence, but knew it had to wait for the final word.
"We were pretty sure that we would get the WorldTour license, but it was still waiting for the official message came," general manager Bill Olivier told Het Nieuwsblad "That we have this licence of course makes a world of difference.”
Lotto Belisol had been in the uncomfortable position of being on hold in the process. “We did not immediately get the green light, since we were 17th in the UCI ranking. Only the first fifteen teams received a license automatically. We had to defend our dossier in Geneva.”
"That the license we achieve is certainly not a surprise but it was still waiting and that is never fun," added sports manager Marc Sergeant. "We now have the certainty that we are going to ride all the big races. Ideal for our internship continue to work in the best conditions. "
“Any other decision would have surprised us, we were very hopeful that we would get a licence,” said sports director Marc Sergeant in the team's press release. "That we can ride all WorldTour races is reassuring. For all riders, staff and sponsors this is excellent news. It is also good for Belgian cycling, it was almost unthinkable that Lotto Belisol wouldn't have got a licence."
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