Axel Merckx has confirmed that he will not be taking up the position of CEO of Belgian squad Lotto-Dstny in 2023, and that instead he will remain in his current post at Hagens Berman Axeon.
Set for relegation from the WorldTour in 2023, the longstanding Belgian squad has also lost its CEO after John Lelangue announced a few weeks back he was moving on to become general manager of the Tour de Pologne in 2023.
Since then speculation has been intense as to who might take over the squad to manage top names like Caleb Ewan, Arnaud De Lie and Thomas De Gendt.
But Axel Merckx, the name that has been circulating for longest as a possible successor to Lelangue, has now turned down the position, according to a lengthy interview in La Dernière Heure (opens in new tab).
Merckx said he had presented the squad with a project of how he saw the team could develop and how he wanted to work, “but that that wasn’t what they wanted.”
“They are continuing down other pathways,” he told La Dernière Heure.
The one concrete development, for now, has been the signing of well-known former Lotto domestique Kurt Van de Wouwer, in the new role of sports manager. But Merckx said he had learned about that through the media.
“This decision shows how the team wants to work,” he said. “Kurt deserves his post. He’s passed the tests and had some great results [with Lotto’s U23 and women’s teams – ed.]
“But with him in the post, the team are looking for a person who isn’t going to want to be so heavily implicated in the sporting side as I’d like.
“I wanted to handle both the managerial and the sporting side. I haven’t been in touch with the team for a good while, but the way I wanted to work with the team isn’t feasible, so the conversation has stopped.”
Merckx said he had not been directly in touch with the team’s executive committee, but had instead been contacted by the Belgian headhunting company contracted to find the new director. He also explained what he viewed as the radically different style of management which dominates in Lotto, rather than in other Belgian squads like QuickStep-AlphaVinyl.
“I didn’t go knocking at their door, they asked me to present my project,” Merckx said. “It would have a good additional part of my career.”
Merckx added that he had also been approached by Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, but he turned down the offer as he felt the current team of sports directors and managers was doing a very good job. “I didn’t want to…
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