It was in the air, we knew it, but the news of a team closing down is never pleasant to report: the Belgian ProTeam Wagner Bazin WB is shutting down and will not be racing next year. No documentation was submitted to the UCI by the October 15th deadline.

Just a year ago, the Belgian team, originally known as Wallonie-Bruxelles and supported for many seasons by the Walloon regional government, was involved in an agreement with the French Continental team Philippe Wagner-Bazin, initiated and financed by entrepreneur Philippe Wagner.

The love between the two entities never blossomed. A few weeks ago, Wagner announced his intention to end the sponsorship, and now the closure has been officially confirmed by team manager Christophe Brandt in an interview with the Belgian newspaper DHnet.

"We had good riders, whom I'm convinced have the potential to become excellent, but it was difficult to obtain immediate results. Certainly, some of them failed to perform at their best, and ultimately Philippe Wagner's ego suffered from this situation. To win some races, he tried to force us to participate in less important events, but as a team, we had already planned trips and made commitments with some organizers for races that would have given visibility to our other sponsors."

Brandt's words become increasingly harsh: "I got the impression that Wagner wanted to exploit what we had built over the years, our connections, our staff, our network. But at that point, he could have simply bought the team at the beginning of the season: it would have been much clearer."

His conclusion is equally bitter: "In June, I found out that he had started working on a new team, also because he had contacted some of the riders under contract with us. Probably the best choice would have been to stop and close the team a year ago."

Many riders have reached the end of their contracts, some have found new teams, while Michiel Lambrecht, Victor Papon, Henri-François Renard-Haquin, Leander Van Hautegem, and Axandre Van Petegem remain tied to the team for 2026, and their future does not look bright.