Lotto Soudal was formed in 1985 and has had Lotto, the Belgian national lottery, as the team's title sponsor since its beginning 32 years ago. Soudal, a chemical adhesives manufacturer based in Turnhout, Belgium, joined as a title sponsor in 2014. Lotto Soudal's UCI license is registered in Belgium.
Oufitted by Vermarc, Lotto Soudal ride in red and white jerseys with black bibs. The Lotto Soudal team ride Ridley bikes made with Campagnolo components.
Sitting in 17th place in the current UCI WorldTour Team Ranking, only one spot above the dreaded last place title, Lotto Soudal will hope to pick up their performance going into the Tour de France and eventually the Vuelta a Espana. Additionally, Lotto Soudal fell from 40 overall wins in 2015 to only 21 in 2016, and do not look on pace to pick that number up in 2017. Team Manager Marc Sergeant has made it clear however that last season's wins were of higher quality and garnered more publicity. Therefore, Lotto Soudal will likely be looking to focus primarily on the most important and publicly attractive stages of this year's Tour de France.
Lotto Soudal's squad is headlined by the power, pure sprinter Andre Greipel. The imposing German rider has been with the Lotto Soudal team for five years now, and has captured a laundry list of stage victories along the way. While Greipel is not necessarily a threat to capture the Maillot Jaune, with his best finish in the general classification at the Tour de France being a 123rd place showing in 2012, he will undoubtedly be in the thick of multiple sprint finishes and will be vying for the green points classification jersey throughout the TdF. Greipel has twice finished second in the points classification at the Tour de France, in 2012 and 2015, and will be eager to show the world he has the ability to capture the green jersey in 2017.
There is no clear all-rounder in the Lotto Soudal squad who will be going after the Maillot Jaune or Maillot Rojo in the upcoming Grand Tours, and it appears that the team will be focusing once again on achieving targeted stage victories. In this case, Greipel will again be the primary rider for Lotto Soudal, and will regularly be supported in the lead-outs by his teammates to achieve sprinter-friendly stage victories. Ideally for Lotto Soudal, Greipel will once again be the first rider to cross the finish on the Champs Elysees.
Lotto Soudal has released their full 2017 Tour de France squad, which will include Andre Greipel, Tim Wellens, Tony Gallopin, Lars Bak, Jurgen Roelandts, Marcel Sieberg, Adam Hansen, Thomas De Gendt, and Tiesj Benoot.
The full list of riders for Lotto Soudal includes:
Riders:
ARMEE Sander | 10.12.1985 | BEL | |
BAK YTTING Lars | 16.01.1980 | DEN | |
BENOOT Tiesj | 11.03.1994 | BEL | |
BOECKMANS Kris | 13.02.1987 | BEL | |
DE BIE Sean | 03.10.1991 | BEL | |
DE BUYST Jasper | 24.11.1993 | BEL | |
DE CLERCQ Bart | 26.08.1986 | BEL | |
DE GENDT Thomas | 06.11.1986 | BEL | |
DEBUSSCHERE Jens | 28.08.1989 | BEL | |
FRISON Frederik | 28.07.1992 | BEL | |
GALLOPIN Tony | 24.05.1988 | FRA | |
GREIPEL André | 16.07.1982 | GER | |
HANSEN Adam James | 11.05.1981 | AUS | |
HOFLAND Moreno | 31.08.1991 | NED | |
MAES Nikolas | 09.04.1986 | BEL | |
MARCZYNSKI Tomasz | 06.03.1984 | POL | |
MONFORT Maxime | 14.01.1983 | BEL | |
ROELANDTS Jurgen | 02.07.1985 | BEL | |
SIEBERG Marcel | 30.04.1982 | GER | |
VALLS FERRI Rafael | 25.06.1987 | ESP | |
VAN DER SANDE Tosh | 28.11.1990 | BEL | |
VANENDERT Jelle | 19.02.1985 | BEL | |
VERVAEKE Louis | 06.10.1993 | BEL | |
WALLAYS Jelle | 11.05.1989 | BEL | |
WELLENS Tim | 10.05.1991 | BEL |
Neo-Pros:
MERTZ Remy | 17.07.1995 | BEL | |
SHAW James | 13.06.1996 | GBR | |
WOUTERS Enzo | 21.03.1996 | BEL |
Comments
Post a Comment