Belgian ProTeam disappears from the peloton after 15 years following sponsor dispute: "They built a new team behind my back"

The Walloon told La Dernière Heure. The team started as Wallonie-Bruxelles, where Brandt joined as team manager in 2014. His team continued as Veranclassic Aqua Protect, Bingoal Pauwels Sauzen WB. Last year, the team had to search hard for new sponsors, and eventually found salvation with Wagner, a charcuterie company owned by Philippe Wagner. He had passion and ambition, but it all went wrong.

Wagner Bazin WB ranks 33rd in the UCI, ahead of only two other ProTeams: Flanders-Baloise and Novo Nordisk. This year, it is in 69th place based on UCI points. "Although we had several good riders, whom I am convinced have the potential to become good professionals, it was difficult to achieve results right away. Some didn't give themselves all the resources they needed to perform."

And Mr. Wagner was highly disappointed with the team's performance. “I think his ego was hurt. To win again, he wanted to force us into smaller races. But we had already planned certain trips, we had already committed to certain events, which also provided visibility for our other partners.”

And so the relationship slowly fell apart. Brandt saw his sponsor contacting the riders themselves about the state of affairs and their future. “And there was less communication between us... until I heard in June that Philippe Wagner was building a team behind my back. He even contacted some of our contracted riders to join his new team.”

And so the curtain falls on Wagner Bazin WB. Brandt criticizes Mr. Wagner's approach. “I get the impression that Philippe Wagner wanted to take advantage of everything we had established over ten years—our know-how, our employees, our network—to make it his own. But then it would have been better to take over the team from me. That would have been clearer than pretending they were building a project.”

After 15 years, Wallonie-Bruxelles and its successors have officially collapsed: Brandt has not applied for a license for the 2026 season. The Walloon team was never the biggest, but it did manage to bring in quite a few WorldTour pros, such as Alex Kirsch (Lidl-Trek), Lionel Taminiaux (Lotto, formerly Alpecin-Deceuninck), Stan Aniolkowski (Cofidis), Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana), Matthijs Paasschens (Bahrain Victorious), and Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty).