Belgian national lottery to up its investment in WorldTour team, Soudal comes on board during Tour

Following the recent signature of memoranda of understanding with Andre Greipel, Jurgen Roelandts, Adam Hansen, Marcel Sieberg and Greg Henderson saying that they intended to remain part of the Lotto Belisol team, the squad is in a position to offer contracts to those riders after confirmation of a budget increase.



Team manager Marc Sergeant has reached an agreement with the Belgian national lottery, putting him in a better financial position and giving him the stability he needs to plan for the future.



“Recently I was together with some people from the National Lottery,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws. “We quickly agreed that in addition to retaining the leaders, that there should also be strengthening throughout the team.



“The existing Memoranda of Understanding with Greipel, Roelandts, Hansen, Sieberg and Henderson will soon be converted into definitive agreements, and that we can move to strengthen the team.”



Sergeant has been understood to be working with a budget of ten million euros, with half of that coming from the national lottery. The financial details of the increase has not been revealed by him, with Sergeant saying that Lotto will itself communicate that shortly.



He’s clear about what it represents, though. “It gives us more financial room for manoeuvre.”



The team’s big GC rider, Jurgen van den Broeck, already has an existing agreement until the end of 2014 and so he was not part of the statement of intent by Greipel and the others to remain on board.



Meanwhile the team has today confirmed that it has reached an agreement with an additional sponsor to come on board during the period of the Tour de France. The chemical company Soudal, which specializes in sealants, adhesives and other products, will see its logo added to the team kit during the race. It is not yet clear if the agreement could continue after the Tour.



Thus far this season, the team has racked up fourteen wins, with Greipel taking six of those. The most recent were two stage victories by him in the Presidential Tour of Turkey.