Rumours that Axel Merckx is a candidate for the job of team manager in the Lotto Dstny team in 2023 have been confirmed for the Belgian squad, who are currently facing a double challenge of imminent relegation from the WorldTour and the lack of a person to run the team.
Following the announcement by John Lelangue that he was quitting, speculation about who could take on the job has been intense.
Daan de Wever, the CEO for the new second sponsor Dstny, has made it clear that Merckx is in the running for the job. He is the only confirmed candidate for now, after soon-to-retire rider Philippe Gilbert made it clear earlier this week that he was not interested in the position, despite multiple approaches.
Recently the manager of the North American under-23 team Hagens Berman Axeon, Merckx is now living in Belgium again. But there has been no indication from Merckx that he will be prepared to take up the equivalent Lotto Dstny position.
According to the Belgian media, De Wever has argued that Lotto Soudal's current woes are partly due to a tendency for the team to rest on its laurels. But while he is proposing a major overhaul of areas such as the squad's work with performance data, one of the team's key current goals, of developing young talent - 20-year-old Arnaud De Lie being a case in point - will remain in place.
"Lotto has lived too long through its past successes," he argued, "things had to change."
"I also talked to the performance people of other teams and found out that we are lagging in this area," De Wever said according to Dutch specialist website Wielerflits.
"There is also much to be gained in the field of data support. We also indicated that talent development should be completely in-house. If we can catch up step by step, then I am convinced that we can move up again."
Even though the contract with Dstny allowed his company to pull out in the case of WorldTour relegation, and despite some severe doubts this May about whether he should continue backing the team, De Wever indicated times had changed in the last six months for the better.
"Since then we have had many conversations with the board, management, the riders and everyone involved in the cycling team. That has given us a lot of confidence for the future. It is clear that we have to start building the team again," he concluded.
