Lotto-Intermarché – Talks well underway at Tour de France for 2026 merger of Belgian teams

Could there be a new-look Belgian team in the WorldTour peloton next season? ProTeam Lotto and struggling WorldTour squad Intermarché-Wanty have reportedly signed a letter of intent to join forces for 2026 and beyond, and moves are underway to make the project a reality.

Reports in Belgian media earlier this week suggested that the two squads are both aiming to merge for next season, with neither able to compete on their own with the big-budget teams at the top of the WorldTour.

Lotto has gone it alone in team title sponsorship this season following the withdrawal of Dstny at the end of 2024. The team, which is well on track for WorldTour promotion for 2026, has a reported budget of €15 million this year, while Intermarché-Wanty, who lost several key riders over the winter and are staving off the threat of relegation, have worked with a budget of around €18 million.

Lotto had been searching for a new co-title sponsor during the Tour de France but now look set to be merging with Intermarché-Wanty, with Het Laatste Nieuws reporting that the two teams had signed a 'preliminary agreement' over the deal.

HLN reports that the team could be presented during the Tour's second rest day next Monday, with designs for the team's new jersey already underway. The team, with the accumulated budgets of the two, would have a budget somewhere in the middle of the current WorldTour pack.

According to Het Nieuwsblad, Lotto would remain as a title sponsor, while Intermarché are committed as lead sponsor through 2028. Wanty's contract, meanwhile, expires at the end of the current season, though the brand has been on board since 2013. A new-look squad will reportedly be known as Lotto-Intermarché.

Orbea, who currently supply bikes to Lotto, looks to be on board as bike sponsor, with Cube's contract as Intermarché-Wanty partner coming to an end this season. The Basque company contributes €2 million to Lotto's budget.

The team's ownership structure and prospective WorldTour licence would transfer to Lotto in the merger scenario, with Intermarché-Wanty's licence holder racking up serious financial losses in recent seasons.

The merger means a top-division licence would be up for sale for 2026 – potentially good news for teams such as Cofidis, who are staring down the barrel of relegation, and the ambitious Swiss squads Tudor and Q36.5.

Lotto taking over the team's licence would also free up all current Intermarché-Wanty riders to seek moves elsewhere, however. Biniam Girmay is currently heavily linked with a switch to XDS-Astana for next season, though it remains to be seen if Lotto-Intermarché could tempt him to stay.

HLN, meanwhile, reports that Lotto's managers have been permitted to seek new deals with riders coming to the end of their contracts, both those already on the team and those on other teams.

The news might come too late to keep riders such as Brent Van Moer and Alec Segaert, however. The pair look all set to switch to Q36.5 and Bahrain Victorious.

The two teams currently have 38 riders under contract for 2026, well over the 30-rider limit for a WorldTour team. However, Intermarché-Wanty riders being free to move on in any merger scenario seems to neatly solve this problem.

Should Girmay move on, then the new team could look to secure several key Intermarché-Wanty riders, such as Gerben Thijssen, Louis Barré, Hugo Page, and Georg Zimmermann. However, the market is set to be flooded with riders once the transfer market opens, with Arkéa-B&B Hotels unlikely to stay afloat with both sponsors pulling out

Key Lotto riders, including Arnaud De Lie, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Milan Menten, Jenno Berckmoes, and Jarno Widar, are all under contract for next season, in any case.

Lotto's women's team will continue racing at ProTeam level for 2026, while it remains to be seen what will come of the two development squads – Lotto Development Team and Wanty-Nippo-ReUz – in any merger situation.

On the staffing side, several directors are leaving Lotto at the end of the season, while Stéphane Heulot is unlikely to stay on as general manager. Instead, Intermarché-Wanty manager Jean-François Bourlart is likely to slot in that role, reports HLN and Het Nieuwsblad.

It's unclear, however, who will lead on the sports side, with each team's sporting manager, Kurt Van de Wouwer and Aike Visbeek, in contention for the role at the merged squad.

The most recent big merger attempt in the WorldTour peloton, the mooted Visma-Soudal deal, which rumbled on in 2023, eventually ground to a halt with talks over the superteam's bike sponsor reportedly getting in the way of a deal. It looks like this merger is already well underway and on the road to success, however.

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