‘A bit like being in Hell’ – Thomas De Gendt on the tumultuous ongoing Lotto-Intermarché fusion and what team mergers mean for the rest of the peloton

Whenever there’s news of a team merger in the peloton, I think the general reaction to it amongst those riders affected is simply: ‘Oh shit, maybe I won’t have a job’. Obviously, a lot depends on whether you have an ongoing contract or not, because if you are still under contract, you won’t be suffering from that much stress. But if you aren’t, a fusion just means one thing: fewer spots on one team – not two – for more riders.

You can see that happening now with the Lotto-Intermarché merger, where many of the big transfers are either not happening or have been put on hold for a long period of time. That’s simply because people still don’t know how the Lotto merger with Intermarché is going to work out, they don’t fully know which riders will be on the market again, and they don’t even know which team sponsors will be on the market, either.