Lotto Soudal 2022: “A pivotal year even more than other teams” | Cycling

number of victories: 12

The most important victories:

– Two stages in Jiro (Ewan)

– First stage at Dauphiné (Van Moer)
– One round UAE Tour (Ewan)
– 2 rounds in Catalonia tour (Krona and de Gendt)

– 1 stage in the Tour de Suisse (Krone)

The first stage of the Benelux tour (Ewan)

leaders:

• Victor Campinarts
• Philip Gilbert
• Florian Vermeersch

leaders:

• Thomas de Gendt
• Vanhoek damage
• Brent Van Muir
• Tim Wellens

The era of Jürgen van den Broek and Cadel Evans is long over. Lotto-Soudal doesn’t cherish any rating ambitions in stage races on paper.

Biggest gain/loss:

Brent Van Moer (23 years old) took the peloton to graze at the Dauphiné and perform an ei after a duplicate number at the Tour de France. If a speed rider combines his abilities with racing intelligence, he can become a special driver. So Lotto Soudal should especially hope that the investment of recent years in youth will pay off, as well as with Andreas Kron (23), who made his WorldTour debut.

I’m looking forward to:

Van Moer could take over as Thomas De Gendt. De Gendt has had a disappointing year and appears ready to retire. Can the race striker charge himself again and live up to his reputation? It also remains to be seen if the hard reset in the bosom of friend Tim Wells has paid off.

2022 goals:

At Grand Tours, the team will still be built around sprinter Caleb Ewan. Rittenkapers like De Gendt, Van Moer and Wellens are sure to get chances, just like Harm Vanhoucke. Will he take out his performance fluctuations and shine in the mountains?

Possible dangers:

With De Gendt and Wellens it can freeze or thaw. They no longer offer guarantees of victories and young people are not allowed to skip steps either.

leaders:

Not without bad luck, but pocket printer Caleb Ewan grabbed half of his lotto wins in 2021.

Biggest gain/loss:

John Degenkolb and Gerben Thyssen’s sprint speed vanished, but the German flopped and Thyssen was unable to unleash himself after misfortune and misery. Arnaud De Lie’s breakthrough is expected soon: the 19-year-old sprinter is exhausted and has to give Ewan and Lotto more oxygen in the sprints.

I’m looking forward to:

Rudiger Selig and Michael Schwarzman have been kidnapped from Bora Hansgrohe. They have to put the Ewan Express on the rails. Is everything going smoothly right away?

2022 goals:

Caleb Ewan wanted to win a stage at every Grand Tour in 2021. At the Giro he went down after two sprint wins, and left the Tour on day three after a heavy fall. He still has credit to settle, as well as with Via Roma. Ewan finished second at Milan-Sanremo after Jasper Steuven and could take a step higher on a great day. Or is he secretly hoping to play a heroic role in his country’s World Cup at the end of September?

Possible dangers:

Ewan is a guarantee of victory, but 2021 knew there would be no replacement at home if the Australian pulled out. It was still too early to put that pressure on Young Di Li’s shoulders.

If you put it all together, it won’t be an easy story for Lotto-Soudal. 2022 will be a more pivotal year for them than any other team. It’s last year for Gilbert and Soudal as sponsors and there’s a possibility of a WorldTour landing, though it’s still unclear exactly how that system works.

There will still be a lot of weight on Caleb Ewan’s shoulders. Each team signs a sprinter of their caliber, guaranteed stage wins in the Grand Tours and a potential winner at Milan Sanremo. If he is spared from bad luck, Lotto-Soudal will be able to keep him in the WorldTour.

But for the rest there is less certainty. Gilbert would be very ambitious to the end. Even the Champion of the Years can still pull a big fish to land based only on experience. The history of cycling is full of such stories. Gilbert still has the nose – one of his first titles, by the way – to perfectly assess racing situations.

Plus, you also have Tim Wellens and the somewhat unpredictable Thomas De Gendt. I also think young Arnaud de Lee has an interesting story and I’m curious what Victor Campinerts will do after a year of testing the cobblestones now because he really wants to get results.

In the rounds, Harm Vanhoucke can still go one step ahead. They are not all Pogacars who were there at such a young age, these are the exceptions. And I don’t think Brett Holmes is a bad rider either. Just because they aren’t attractive names right now doesn’t mean they can’t become one.