Lotto Soudal 2017 Team Profile




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 Sander10.12.1985BEL
BAK YTTING Lars16.01.1980DEN
BENOOT Tiesj11.03.1994BEL
BOECKMANS Kris13.02.1987BEL
DE BIE Sean03.10.1991BEL
DE BUYST Jasper24.11.1993BEL
DE CLERCQ Bart26.08.1986BEL
DE GENDT Thomas06.11.1986BEL
DEBUSSCHERE Jens28.08.1989BEL
FRISON Frederik28.07.1992BEL
GALLOPIN Tony24.05.1988FRA
GREIPEL André16.07.1982GER
HANSEN Adam James11.05.1981AUS
HOFLAND Moreno31.08.1991NED
MAES Nikolas09.04.1986BEL
MARCZYNSKI Tomasz06.03.1984POL
MONFORT Maxime14.01.1983BEL
ROELANDTS Jurgen02.07.1985BEL
SIEBERG Marcel30.04.1982GER
VALLS FERRI Rafael25.06.1987ESP
VAN DER SANDE Tosh28.11.1990BEL
VANENDERT Jelle19.02.1985BEL
VERVAEKE Louis06.10.1993BEL
WALLAYS Jelle11.05.1989BEL
WELLENS Tim10.05.1991BEL


Neo-Pros:


MERTZ Remy17.07.1995BEL
SHAW James13.06.1996GBR
WOUTERS Enzo21.03.1996BEL
    


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