A major revamp but Girmay still the star at Intermarché-Circus-Wanty – 2023 team preview

There may have seemed to be little call for it given their performance last season, but Belgian squad Intermarché-Circus-Wanty have undergone an overhaul since the end of the 2022 campaign.

Yes, their kits have been switched up from the workmanlike white front, coloured sleeves combo to a neon and navy paint splat number, but there have been plenty of new faces at their pre-season training camp, too.

In come Portuguese veteran and Tour de Suisse specialist Rui Costa, a handful of versatile sprinty/Classics types in Niccolò Bonifazio, Mike Teunissen, and Dion Smith, plus former Tour and Vuelta stage winner Lilian Calmejane.

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They have some major boots to fill, with Classics co-leader and Scheldeprijs champion Alexander Kristoff heading the outgoing list over the winter. Jan Hirt, who won a Giro d'Italia stage en route to sixth overall and also took the Tour of Oman, left to help Remco Evenepoel at Soudal-QuickStep.

Quinten Hermans enjoyed a breakthrough season with a Liège-Bastogne-Liège podium spot but had agreed on a move to Alpecin-Deceuninck well before his controversial Tour de France non-selection. 40-year-old Domenico Pozzovivo, meanwhile, is surprisingly still without a team despite yet another Giro top-10 finish.

Looking through the names and their accompanying palmarès of late, it's hard to argue that Intermarché's squad isn't weaker than the one which ranked as the fifth-best in the world at last season's end.

However, despite the changes, a number of key riders remain on board – Lorenzo Rota, who was close to a Giro win in Genoa and scored several good results at lower levels; a resurgent Louis Meintjes, he of a Tour seventh place and a Vuelta stage win; Tour de Pologne stage winner Gerben Thijssen; and 2021 Giro stage winner Taco van der Hoorn, to name a few.

The squad's focal point, leader, and star, though, is Biniam Girmay. The Eritrean 23-year-old soared in 2022, beating Mathieu van der Poel to win in the Giro d'Italia in Jesi having earlier broken through as the first black African to win a Classic at Gent-Wevelgem.

He swiftly agreed to a new four-year deal at the end of the Classics season, and the team is now all-in on their new star, who kicks off his season as he did last year with the Challenge Mallorca.

Girmay and Intermarché haven't yet taken a decision on what he'll be targeting in 2023, though the Classics are a given, obviously. At the team's 2023 presentation on Friday, Girmay revealed his spring would revolve around Milan-San Remo and debuts at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, while the summer will bring a Tour de France debut, too. 

Girmay has already shown that he can compete for wins at the highest level, and there are certainly several chances to fight for victory on the early Basque stages in July, meaning a possible shot at yellow on his first time in France.

In any case, the team is now focussed on building around him, if you hadn't already guessed. 

"One of our priorities in our transfer strategy last season was to strengthen the core around Bini," team performance manager Aike Visbeek told WielerFlits recently.

"With Dion Smith and especially Mike, we've made a good investment in that. We now have more options in the Classics and semi-Classics, and I expect that we will compete for the prizes. That's our goal and we can't go for less."

It's part of the team's long-term strategy, with Visbeek saying the team also has to keep part of their focus on smaller races below WorldTour to keep stable and so avoid the relegation battle teams faced last season.

But he also acknowledged that the team's relatively small budget has meant that the transfer choices made over the winter were all made of necessity.

"We simply didn't have the money," he said, referring to keeping Domenico Pozzovivo. "If we found that in our budget it would mean we can't do other things. I'd like to add another climber – we really miss them in our selection – but it's incredibly difficult for us."

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty are a team living two realities, then. In 2022 they made the absolute most of what they had, got the results to show for it, and are now primed with a star rider and a cluster of supporting riders to help him. However, despite the success and Girmay's promise, financial realities mean that they've had to take backwards steps elsewhere.

Internal growth will be a major focus going forward. It's an aim for every team but here will be a necessity in order to keep the good times rolling.

Hugo Page will look to build on several promising results at the end of 2022, while Arne Marit, Rune Herregodts and Laurens Rex step up a level from the Belgian ProTeam ranks, and neo-pros Madis Mihkels and Dries De Pooter are ones for the future.

Perhaps the biggest focus, though, will be on those incoming riders who maybe haven't maximised their potential elsewhere in recent years, namely Teunissen, Calmejane, Bonifazio, and Smith. Following the major roster churn, they'll be needed to bolster the points and results sheet.

The big questions for 2023

• With Kristoff, Pozzovivo, Hermans, and Hirt having left the team has lost four of their top seven points-getters from 2022. Have they been adequately replaced?
• Will Biniam Girmay continue his upwards trajectory and star at the Tour de France?
• More of the same from Meintjes? The South African achieved his best Grand Tour results in five years at the Tour and Vuelta.
• Can the team get the best out of new signings Costa, Teunissen, Bonifazio, Smith, and Calmejane?
• Internal progress is the goal, but what will youngsters such as Julius Johansen, Page, Herregodts make of their increased opportunities?