Lotto Dstny

Lotto Dstny are the team with the longest-running sponsorship in professional cycling, having borne the name of the Belgian national lottery since the team’s inception in 1985. Traditionally, they have held a fierce rivalry with Belgium’s other big team, Soudal Quick-Step - going so far as losing their long-time sponsor Soudal to their rivals for 2023 - but they have tended to be overshadowed by Patrick Lefevere’s riders in recent years. 

At the end of 2022, the team were delivered something of a blow when they were demoted from the WorldTour to ProConti level, not scoring enough points in the first cycle of the UCI’s new relegation system. 

The team had a season of mixed fortunes in 2023 with youngster Arnaud De Lie delivering half of their 20 victories, including the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and the Circuit Franco-Belge, and Andreas Kron winning a Vuelta a España stage. However, main man Caleb Ewan suffered a troubled campaign and his departure to former team Jayco AlUla was confirmed in the Autumn.

The team's exploits in 2023 were enough to earn them an invitation to all three Grand Tours and every WorldTour race in 2024. Lotto Dstny's squad for the season, minus the departure of Ewan, remains much the same with a strong emphasis expected to be on one-day races where they can rack up ranking points.

Tech

Pro Bikes

Florian Vermeersch’s Ridley Kanzo Fast: Gravel World Championships Pro Bike

The Ridley Kanzo Fast is a pure racing gravel bike with an aerodynamic design that is inspired by the Ridley Noah Fast, a bike tried and tested at WorldTour races at the hands of Lotto Dstny

Florian Vermeersch’s Ridley Kanzo Fast for the Gravel World Championships: the fastest gravel bike in the world

The Vermeersch name appears to be a lucky omen at the 

. Last year, Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium) placed his name in the history books by winning the inaugural edition of the race. 

, a compatriot but no relation, came close to making it two in a row for the Vermeerschs of the world on Sunday, infiltrating the day’s race-winning move before eventually having to settle for second behind 

 gravel bike for what may be the last time. We caught a glimpse of the bike ahead of the race.

Wout van Aert's Cervélo Aspero for Gravel World Championships

With the growth in popularity of the discipline, the term ‘gravel’ has grown to encompass multiple types of terrain. As anyone who rode Unbound earlier this year can attest to, that can be anything from soft-pack gravel all the way through to peanut butter mud. In correlation with this growth of the discipline, the range of gravel bikes has also become broader, with pure adventure bikes at one end and race machines that wouldn’t be out of place in a WorldTour race on the other.

 Kanzo Fast falls firmly on the latter end of the scale, with an aerodynamic design that is inspired by the Ridley Noah Fast, a bike tried and tested at WorldTour races at the hands of Lotto Dstny. That racing pedigree is plain to see through the dropped seatstays, aggressive geometry and aero handlebars.

Ridleys says that it “spent hours in the wind tunnel” honing the design, something that is virtually a given for road bikes at this point, but is a rarer occurrence for gravel bikes. That is, of course, because a focus on aerodynamics tends to be detrimental to the adventure side of the bike. Not that it matters here. The Kanzo Fast’s sole purpose is to win bike races, not for fun gravel adventures, so Ridley has placed aerodynamics at the forefront of the design. Judging by Vermeersch’s performance, Ridley has done a good job.

It’s unlikely that we’ll see Vermeersch team up with the bike again, though, unless he takes on another gravel race by the end of the year. His trade team Lotto Dstny announced that it was ending its partnership with Ridley back in August, bringing an end to their 12-year partnership at the end of the season.

 Lotto Dstny set to part ways with Ridley and swap to Orbea

Unlike other road riders who took to the start line, Vermeersch followed the more traditional gravel route by using a 1x set-up. For it, he used a 50t Rotor Aldhu chainring, although unusually, he didn’t add a chain catcher to the system. These are often used by racers looking for a 'belt and braces' way to prevent dropping a chain. In this case, Vermeersch had no issues riding without one.

’s GRX groupset, but not the new 12-speed version released earlier this year. Instead, Vermeersch opted for the older 11-speed version. The older GRX has its limitations – the biggest sprocket it can fit on the back is 42t, which can be limiting in some situations. In the new 12-speed GRX, that capability has been increased to 51t. Vermeersch maxed out the capability of his groupset, using what we believe is a 11-42t Shimano XT mountain bike cassette.

Shimano releases new 12-speed GRX groupset

That combo provides an easiest 50/42t gear, one of the least climbing-friendly gearing choices we encountered. For comparison, Keegan Swenson’s bike had a 48t chainring but a 52t largest cog, providing a much easier climbing gear. Vermeersch's choice is a surprising one given the punchy parcours, and one that may have made the difference on the day, with Mohorič dropping Vermeersch on the final climbs.

To complete his gravel build, Vermeersch used 

’s Terreno Dry tyres in what appears to be a 38mm width, a common size with most riders sticking to the 38-40mm range. These were paired with DT Swiss ERC 1100 wheels which have 45mm rim depths.

Keegan Swenson's Santa Cruz Stigmata - UCI Gravel World Championships bike

Maxim Van Gils

Arnaud De Lie

Florian Vermeersch

Lennert Van Eetvelt

Andreas Kron

Jasper De Buyst

Milan Menten

Jarne Van de Paar

Alec Segaert

Brent Van Moer

Eduardo Sepulveda

Lionel Taminiaux

Sylvain Moniquet

Victor Campenaerts

Cédric Beullens

Pascal Eenkhoorn

Logan Currie

Jenno Berckmoes

Harm Vanhoucke

Arjen Livyns

Liam Slock

Jonas Gregaard

Johannes Adamietz

Jarrad Drizners

Mathijs Paasschens

Henri Vandenabeele

Thomas De Gendt

Sébastien Grignard

Jacopo Guarnieri

News

Tech News

Orbea officially announced as Lotto Dstny bike sponsor for 2024 

Lotto Dstny will be rolling on Orbea bikes as of 2024 

 announced on Thursday afternoon that the team will be riding on 

 for the coming season. This comes after news broke in August that the team were looking to break their contract with their current bike sponsor 

Orbea was rumoured to be the new bike sponsor over the summer, and leaked images of Lotto Dstny-branded Orbea frames seemed to confirm that, with both parties making the official announcement on Thursday.

Lotto Dstny set to part ways with Ridley, swap to Orbea

Orbea as a brand has been around for nearly 200 years, but it was only in the 1930s that it began to produce bicycles. Once the first bikes rolled off the production line they immediately started racking up the victories. They have since partnered with Euskaltel, Cofidis and B&B Hotels, and now return to the pro peloton with Lotto Dstny.

The team will have the choice of Orbea’s new lightweight climbing bike the 

 or the more aerodynamically focused Orca Aero. Interestingly, the newly released Orca has bucked the trend of ever more aero-optimised climbing bikes and has instead been produced with the sole purpose of being lightweight.

The team will also be using Orbea's own in-house brand wheels from Oquo. These wheels are a new venture for the brand with the team's use of them being the first outing for them in a professional peloton.

The move to Orbea for 2024 sees the team break its contract with Ridley which was set to run until the end of 2025. However, after 12 years with the Belgium bike brand, the team sought to move on, citing financial reasons as the motivating factor.

Ridley hits back at Lotto Dstny 'disloyalty' over early ending of partnership

Back at the end of August when the rumours started to circulate, Lotto Dstny CEO Stéphane Heulot had the following to say to 

: "Our collaboration with Ridley will indeed end at the end of this year [2023]. We are switching to a new bicycle brand. Not so much because we are not satisfied with the quality of the Ridley bike. We have had 12 great years with numerous victories. We chose another brand because we want to improve ourselves financially. That is necessary to be able to keep our current core."

At the time of reporting, a lot remained up in the air to end the partnership with Ridley for the 2024 season legally. With the new season just ahead of us, everything looks to have been squared away.

Bora-Hansgrohe confirm switch to SRAM for 2024

Confirming the Basque brand as the team's official new partner, Ander Olariaga, Orbea's brand and communications director said: "Like Lotto Dstny, we are a brand with a strong global presence. Through this collaboration, we aspire to broaden our impact and strengthen our recognition worldwide."

Looking ahead to the new partnership, Heulot added: "Lotto Dstny finds in Orbea an ideal ally to continue improving the performance of our entire structure. The adaptation to the new bikes has been quick and the willingness to continue working on their development is always there. Together, I am certain we can achieve great things."

With the season getting underway in the next few weeks we will be sure to see the team bikes in action where we can see them in the team colours, until then why not head over to our 

 section to see just what the pros are using? 

Racing

Race News

Orbea unveil the team bikes Lotto Dstny will be using in 2024 

was announced as the bike sponsor of Lotto Dstny

 last week, however, we've had to wait a little bit longer for pictures of the actual bikes to be released.

As to be expected from a brand with both a lightweight climbing bike and an aero bike, the team will have access to both models, although it is likely that the Orca Aero will be picking up most of the duties.

The climbers within the team will be very happy with the 

lightweight Orca’s total system weight of 6.7kg

 which comes in under the UCI’s minimum weight limit. Although designed specifically to be as feathery as possible it is not as common as it once was for bikes to weigh less than the lower limit.

Orbea officially announced as Lotto Dstny bike sponsor for 2024

 team bikes is the wheels come from Orbea themselves, in the form of the newly launched 

. The team will have access to the 57mm wheelset as well as the 45mm and 35mm depths. This will be the first outing for the brand's own wheels in WorldTour racing and at £2,000 for a set it presents remarkable value compared to offerings from other wheel sponsors.

As far as the team livery is concerned, the two bikes get a slightly different design. The standard Orca is a timeless affair with a black frame paired with a fork sporting the team's red and teal colours. The Orca Aero on the other hand shouts a little louder as to which team it belongs to. Joining the same fork design as the Orca is the continuation of the team red along half of the top tube and some of the down tube.

For those of you who have taken a fancy to Lotto’s new ride, a team replica model of both bikes is being made available directly from 

. These are the Orca M10i LTD Replica and Orca Aero M10i LTD. 

Built around the team's new livery is an integrated Vision 5D handlebar, Shimano Dura-ace Di2 drivetrain, paired to an FSA Powerbox K-Force Team Edition crankset with both bikes finished off with a set of Oquo wheels of various profiles according to the model.

Are you a fan of Lotto Dstny’s new team bikes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below

Features

Racing Features

Words of Wisdom: Peloton's veterans share their advice with the next generation

Thomas De Gendt looking suitably wise and contemplative

Professional cycling is a young man’s game. That wasn’t the case even as recently as five years ago, but the sport has changed dramatically in the space of just half a decade, to the point where, as Wordsworth would put it, the children are fathers to the men.

It used to be that the first two or three years of a career would serve as an apprenticeship, a rite of passage in learning the ropes, developing physically, and finding one’s place in the natural order of the peloton. Nowadays, neo pros are coming onto the scene as something approaching the finished article.

 and asked them what one piece of advice they’d give to the youngsters, most of them laughed. “They’re the ones who should be giving us the advice!” said 

But can the young bucks still learn a thing or two from the wise old owls? When you consider that three of the over 35s we spoke to for this piece won stages at the Vuelta, perhaps so. 

In any case, here is, in their own words, the counsel they’d offer to someone just making their first steps in the sport. Roll Baz Lurhmann's Sunscreen.

One day at a time, getting through the mundane, and lots of luck - how to survive a Grand Tour

It’s important that they know they can have some downtime. It’s necessary to have some periods where you really disconnect from cycling, like I did with 

my bikepacking trip from Belgium to Spain

 – it frees the mind and takes you away from the training and the racing. You need those moments to get the focus back.

When it comes to racing itself, it's difficult because they all know much more than I ever did. When they talk to the dieticians and the coaches, they talk in terms as if they did the studies themselves. Most of them know everything about nutrition, training, what altitude does to your body… It’s difficult to give advice there. 

Maybe not to panic when things go wrong – sometimes you see them panicking if there are splits in the bunch after a downhill or something, and there’s no real need for panic. Stress less, I would say.

They’re the ones who should be giving us the advice! We come from a completely different cycling. 

What they should remember is that the professional life of an athlete is short. Make the most of it, take each day as it comes, and, most importantly, enjoy it.

When you’re young, you look for the goals, you want to win the Tour, you want to win this and that, and what I would say is ‘dream big, and no shame’. Work for your goals, give it 100%, but don’t be ashamed if you do not achieve them. There is no shame if you try. When you get older, you calm down because you get to know your place, your level. But when you’re young, go for it 100%.

The other thing I would say is ‘trust people’. Nowadays, there are a lot of people who can help you. When I was young, I was quite alone. There was nothing about nutrition, for example. The doping [period] was finished and it was the time when there were no systems, for training even, and it was really hard because I was quite alone. But now you have a lot of experts who can help. Trust them.

The young guys are coming through now with a lot of strength and a lot of motivation, but I believe we are losing the respect – that’s really notable. 

The only thing I’d ask is that they have a little more conscience. When I was younger like them, I had respect for the veterans. It always gave me a thrill to see them up close. 

I looked up to them with a degree of respect, but that’s been lost now - completely.

What would I say to a neo pro? Just stay away from all this madness! 

No, just enjoy it, I guess. It seems like they know exactly what to do, because they’re getting better and better younger and younger. 

In terms of helping them out along the road, we can still be helpful because we’ve seen a lot. In terms of stress, and dealing with that, maybe that's the biggest point. With experience, you learn how to be calm in certain situations. Nowadays there's more stress than ever among the young guys. That's why it's still important to have someone older to talk them through those moments as they are happening.

Number one would be to make sure you keep enjoying it. We all got into this because it was something we had fun doing, and the minute you lose that fun aspect, it’s not easy, it becomes a job. Always try to keep it fun so it doesn’t become too much of a job.

For example, one thing I’ve seen a lot is guys thinking ‘ah I’ve got all these specific efforts, this and that, I should just ride alone every day’. There’s always someone else around, someone who has similar training to you, so make an effort to stay social and not just isolate yourself, because that’s easy to do. 

Your efforts may be ‘easier’ done alone, but you don’t lose anything by riding with a buddy, another pro, and you gain a lot from the social aspect of it. Keep that in mind that you don’t always have to ride alone.

I’d advise them to avoid nurturing complexes, especially when it comes to the level of the peloton. On the one hand, they’re already well on their way with that. 

When I turned pro 17 years ago, I looked up at the stars of the peloton with a mixture of fear and apprehension, and I definitely had some complexes around where I would fit in. Now, I see the kids coming straight out the U23s without any fear. The level of the amateur and U23 categories has shot up, and is very close to the top level. 

That's a good thing, because it creates a mixture of generations in the classifications. But it can lead to other complexes if you aren't finding success as early as your peers. You have to try to not get distracted about what others are doing and that way you can find your place in the sport.

I would say 'keep your head up', because I see they are harder and harder on themselves, more and more demanding of themselves. They can't show weakness anymore, and if they're not winning, they're panicking. 

Try and find your place in a team as quickly as possible, even if that's becoming harder and harder. That might mean adjusting your expectations. It could be a supporting role, but try and find a role and find satisfaction in that post. It's hard to be a big leader, it takes a lot. Think about focusing on something more achievable.

Finally, focus on the enjoyment aspect. Don't forget that you do this through passion, even if it remains a profession. I see young guys more and more assiduous in all aspects, but I also think it’s important for us older ones to encourage them to find a good balance. That means, from time to time, letting some things slide. But balance is what makes a career last longer. The way we're going, careers will become shorter – more intense, but shorter.

I don’t want to give them any advice, they’re way too good already! They don’t need it! Just enjoy riding your bike, enjoy bike racing. It’s the best profession in the world.

Are Decathlon Winning Because Of The New Van Rysel? | GCN Tech Show 333

Are Pro Handlebars Getting Higher For More Speed?

Narrow Handle Bars, Perfect Bike Saddles & Chain Wax | GCN Tech Clinic

Are Super Strong Cyclists Killing Racing? | GCN Show Ep. 591

Lotto Dstny

Lotto Dstny

The Team

Team Bikes

Florian Vermeersch’s Ridley Kanzo Fast: Gravel World Championships Pro Bike

Top Lotto Dstny Stories

Orbea officially announced as Lotto Dstny bike sponsor for 2024

Orbea unveil the team bikes Lotto Dstny will be using in 2024

Words of Wisdom: Peloton's veterans share their advice with the next generation

Subscribe to the GCN Newsletter

Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Maxim Van Gils	24	5	2447
Arnaud De Lie	22	27	2288
Florian Vermeersch	25	2	1143
Lennert Van Eetvelt	22	11	1082
Andreas Kron	25	6	957