Sponsorship

Peter De Clercq in a Lotto jersey in 1994

Philippe Gilbert at the 2021 Liège–Bastogne–Liège

Lotto has a long history of cycling sponsorship, they began sponsoring 1984 with Tönissteiner–Lotto–Mavic–Pecotex. In 1985, it became prime sponsor of a team bearing only its name. Walter Godefroot and Patrick Lefevere were early directeurs sportifs. The fusion of the Lotto–Adecco and Domo–Farm Frites teams for the start of the 2003 season created the current team and structure in the guise of Lotto–Domo.

Omega Pharma had previously been a co-sponsor of the Quick-Step–Davitamon team in 2003 and 2004. Omega Pharma became the main sponsors in 2005, under their Davitamon brand name. The team name switched to Omega Pharma's Predictor brand name in 2007 and the Silence brand in 2008. From 2010 the team became known as Omega Pharma–Lotto, but this sponsor moved their financial support to the Quick-Step setup for the 2012 season.

Belisol became co-sponsors in 2012, and are a Belgian company making windows and doors and solar panels.

On the final day of the 2014 Tour de France the team announced that they had secured new sponsorship for the team with Soudal, manufacturers of sealants, adhesives and foams. Soudal signed a deal lasting six seasons, the team name becoming Lotto Soudal: in 2019, they extended the deal for two more years.^[3] Lotto continue to sponsor the team, as well as the women's team and under-23 team.^[4]

For one stage race each year since 2016 (at the 2016 Paris–Nice, 2017 Paris–Nice, 2018 Giro d'Italia, and 2019 Tour de Pologne), the team raced under the name Lotto Fix ALL and changed the team kit to a grey colour to reflect one of Soudal's key brands.^[5]

Tour status

Lotto–Dstny was a member team of the UCI World Tour from its inception in 2009 until the end of the 2022 season. The team was relegated from the World Tour at the end of 2022 after finishing 19th in the points standings for the 2020 - 2022 qualification cycle. The top 18 teams qualified for the 2023 - 2025 cycle, meaning that from 2023 the team will drop down a division and race under a UCI ProTeam licence.^[6] Among non-World Tour teams, Lotto finished first in the 2022 one-year points list ahead of TotalEnergies, meaning it receives wildcards for all 2023 World Tour stage and one-day races.

Current team structure

The team is managed by Marc Sergeant and Bill Olivier and they are assisted by Herman Frison, Jean-Pierre Heynderickx, Bart Leysen, Marc Wauters, Mario Aerts and Michiel Elijzen.

After Tosh Van der Sande accidentally listed the wrong nasal spray brand in the paperwork at the 2018 Six Days of Ghent where he returned a positive test for prednisolone, a substance found in the nasal spray Sofrasolone,^[7] he was temporarily suspended by the team.^[8] Van der Sande was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the UCI.^[9][10][11]