Belgian media have reported that the formal application for the 2026 merger between Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty has now been presented to the UCI.
Het Laatste Nieuws reported on Wednesday that a meeting between the two teams earlier this week saw an application for the license sent in shortly before the October 15 deadline.
The UCI now needs to decide if the merger can go ahead, with an announcement apparently set to be made on October 18.
After an original letter of intent confirming the two Belgian squads, one WorldTour and one ProTeam, was made public during the Tour de France this summer, a bank guarantee and various confirmations of sponsor deals for 2026 have apparently been included with the application.
However, according to Het Nieuwsblad, Continuum Sports NV, the owner of the Intermarché-Wanty cycling team's license, was running at a loss of nearly a million euros when its accounts were last formally submitted, back in 2023. It's not clear yet how this situation may affect the squad going forward.
Another big question needing to be answered is whether leading Intermarché sprinter Biniam Girmay will remain with the new team or not. At the moment, it's looking likely, he will stay, but should he finally move on in 2026, that may put part of the current sponsorship plans in jeopardy. The Eritrean has previously been linked with a switch to XDS-Astsana.
Should Girmay continue, then according to HLN, the new squad will have 31 riders on its books, one too many for a WorldTour team. A further seven are under contract and will need their contracts to be paid out, while another eight riders, whose contracts have ended, remain teamless for 2026.
With the license application submitted, in any case, and hopefully confirmed on October 18 as accepted, the team will now have time to move forward on all these questions. A definitive UCI WorldTour team list for 2026 won't be published until early December.
