The day after it was announced that it had been granted a four-year WorldTour license by the International Cycling Union (UCI), Belgian ProTeam Lotto-Belisol has released pictures of the livery it will be wearing in 2012. The new kit, which features large areas of navy blue, in contrast to the white, green and red of the kit it wore as Omega Pharma-Lotto, is modelled by neo-pro Tosh Van der Sande.
The team continues its long association with Belgian manufacturer Vermarc Sport, while the new jersey design, says they team, is “sober and coherent, which reflects the dynamism of our riders, their class, and their savoir-faire.”
While the Lotto-Belisol team is treated by the UCI as a new team, it is made up from the Omega Pharma-Lotto team, which has its roots with the old Lotto team of the mid 1980’s. The team has managed to hold on to the majority of its riders from 2011, with the main loss being WorldTour winner Philippe Gilbert, who has made a big-money move to BMC Racing.
Under the current points system, Gilbert’s departure cost the team – which also finished the year as World number one – the majority of its points. The team only scraped into the top fifteen teams, under sporting criteria, by the skin of its teeth and dropped to thirteenth place.
As well as new sponsors, Lotto-Belisol’s new focus on becoming a Belgian cycling project also sees a change of bikes from 2012. The team will switch from German brand Canyon, which it has ridden since 2009, back to Belgian company Ridley, which it rode between 2005 and 2008.
Although it says goodbye to Gilbert at the end of the year, Lotto-Belisol has managed to hold on to Belgian Tour de France hope Jurgen Van Den Broeck, re-emerging climber Jelle Vanendert, and classic specialist Jürgen Roelandts. Despite its new Belgian focus, the team also holds on to German sprinter Andre Greipel, as well as signing Danish super-domestique Lars Bak.