Lotto–Intermarché take strong prep week — and “some great lessons” — into Opening Weekend

In the UAE Tour, Lennert Van Eetvelt delivered a standout result for Lotto–Intermarché, finishing third on stage 3 and ultimately sixth overall. (For more on the UAE Tour’s decisive mountain days. Young sprinter Steffen De Schuyteneer also made a strong first impression at WorldTour level, adding multiple top-ten results to underline the team’s depth.

The merged team therefore looks back at the week of racing in the desert with great satisfaction. "We came here with the goal to do well in the general classification so we are happy with a 6th place," sports director Mario Aerts said on the team's website.

Van Eetvelt himself also took plenty of confidence from the week in the Emirates. “It was a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t show my full potential in stage six but I am happy that in stage three I could show that my legs are getting there. It’s a promising sign and we learned some great lessons this week,” he reflected.

Beyond the headline results, Lotto–Intermarché were keen to highlight how quickly a newly blended group is starting to function as a unit — an important theme heading into the chaotic, high-speed battles of the classics.

De Schuyteneer’s sprint placings were a good example of that. Aerts pointed to the value of the team’s more experienced hands in guiding younger riders through nervous finales and tricky racing situations. “The road captains and experienced riders played a key role in guiding the younger talents through stressful sprint finishes, crosswinds and decisive climbs,” the team wrote, with Jasper De Buyst singled out as a crucial figure in that role.

“A win is never easy,” Aerts concluded, “but we should not forget that we did show ourselves off very strongly here. Especially with the teamwork that we showed, we can look ahead positively to what is to come.”

There was also plenty of satisfaction after a week of racing in Portugal at the Volta ao Algarve — a race Lotto–Intermarché treated as a dress rehearsal for the classics that begin next weekend. With Arnaud De Lie and Jarno Widar on the start line, the team arrived in the Algarve with some of its biggest talents. The focus after the finish, however, was less about chasing immediate results and more about building form and cohesion — and taking away clear learnings.

“We wrapped up the Tour of the Algarve with a strong seventh place for Jarno Widar on the Alto do Malhão,” the team reported, with performance manager Aike Visbeek summing up the bigger picture succinctly: “But with a handful of lessons for Opening Weekend and, by extension, the rest of the spring classics.”

Visbeek also underlined how much change the squad is still absorbing — and why that matters when the classics are all about timing, positioning, and collective instinct. “We shouldn’t forget that nearly half of the team is new,” he said. “We therefore had two clear goals this week. First, to take a physical step toward Opening Weekend and the next block of climbing races. Second, to become better attuned to each other as a team.”

There is still work to do, particularly in the frantic fight for position that defines both bunch sprints and cobbled finales. “Positioning, for example, still needs to be better. We’ll take that with us,” Visbeek admitted — but his closing message was clearly optimistic: “I’m optimistic. We head into the classics with a hungry mindset.”