It is with a very clear objective in mind that Lotto Intermarchè has built its roster for the Tour de France 2026: to return to winning a stage, something the Belgian team has been missing since July 18, 2024, when Victor Campenaerts triumphed in the Gap-Barcelonnette stage.

To end this drought, the team led by Jean-François Bourlart has decided to bring to France two of its main trump cards: Arnaud De Lie (in his third consecutive participation in the Grande Boucle) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (who crashed in the opening days last year and withdrew after 14 stages). Both, thanks to their explosiveness, have already shown on certain finishes that they can compete on equal terms with almost the entire peloton, and therefore, on stages with finishes that suit their characteristics, they will seriously attempt to hit the jackpot.

Alongside the two Belgians, they will have a rather large contingent of Tour debutants, as both Liam Slock and Lars Craps, Baptiste Veistroffer and Huub Artz will be making their absolute debut at the Grande Boucle. Despite this, all four have managed to stand out during the season, showing improvements that will undoubtedly lead them to start from Barcelona confident and aware that they can play an important role for their team over the three weeks of racing.

Already possessing good Tour experience are Jenno Berckmoes and Georg Zimmermann, who, with one and five participations respectively under their belts, will complete an attacking selection determined to seize (in breakaways and beyond) all the opportunities that the road will offer them to achieve that partial success that is the team's stated objective for the most important race of the year.

"This year we won't be sitting on the sidelines: we have no ambitions for the general classification and our focus is entirely on stage wins and achieving significant results" explained Kurt Van de Wouwer before going into detail about the route and the choices made to be competitive on it.

"While previous editions traditionally started in a hectic and chaotic manner, this year things will be different, with climbs scheduled from the start, and this is good news for riders like Lennert Van Eetvelt, while for De Lie the first real opportunity will only come in the fifth stage" continued de Wouwer.

"We're fielding a very young team, with riders all under thirty years old, but at the same time it also includes someone like Zimmermann who is already at his sixth Tour participation. It's an interesting formation, with people who have great engines like Veistroffer, Craps and Slock. They are riders capable of handling the demands of a Tour that becomes faster and more challenging every year, where even apparently simple transition stages produce spectacular moments".

"I'm enthusiastic about the team we'll field in this 113th edition of the Tour de France" echoed Bourlart. "It's the most important race of the year, not only for our main partner, the National Lottery, but especially for our main French sponsor, Intermarchè. [...]. Shaping the selection for a race like this is never easy and every year you have to make difficult decisions, but I'm convinced that we'll send to Barcelona the riders in the best condition. Liam Slock has made extraordinary progress in recent weeks, Lars Craps had an excellent Dauphiné, and although the presence of Baptiste Veistroffer may seem like a surprise, the Frenchman will be a fundamental resource for us. We're 100% ready".