{"id":609861,"date":"2025-12-03T16:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/609861\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:25:17","slug":"people-i-know-quite-closely-are-just-left-to-fall-out-of-cycling-victor-campenaerts-deeply-troubled-by-human-cost-of-lotto-intermarche-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/609861\/","title":{"rendered":"“People I know quite closely are just left to fall out of cycling” \u2013 Victor Campenaerts deeply troubled by human cost of Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

He then summarised the reality more plainly: “It’s people, of course, that I know quite closely who are just left to fall out of cycling. And that’s not nice, of course.”<\/p>\n

Rather than criticising the merger, Campenaerts spoke with a sense of sadness for those who have not been able to secure new roles \u2014 and a quiet hope that the new structure will eventually stabilise. “I hope it brings good stuff, the fusion for them. We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

Former teammates caught in limbo: \u201cI\u2019m just so happy he found the spot\u201dAmong those affected was his former teammate Jared Drizners, who faced several weeks of uncertainty<\/a> before eventually signing with Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe for 2026.<\/p>\n

“If you do the Tour together with somebody in your team, you have a lifetime bond with that person,” Campenaerts said, reflecting on their shared experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe contacted me in October. I talked to Grischa Niermann<\/a>, but I knew those spots were already filled in our team, and I couldn\u2019t help him. I\u2019m just so happy he found the spot [at Red Bull],\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

But as Campenaerts emphasised, Drizners is far from the only rider affected \u2014 and not everyone has been able to secure a new contract. The uncertainty extends beyond riders to staff and management as well.<\/p>\n

\"1117816691\"\/<\/p>\n

Campenaerts was a loyal servant of the Lotto team for 5 seasons<\/p>\n

Inside the suffering: Campenaerts opens up on the psychology of racing<\/p>\n

While the merger formed the emotional core of his appearance, Campenaerts also offered typical insight into the mental battle that defines his racing style \u2014 particularly when riding on the limit during climbs.<\/p>\n

He recalled a metaphor from a Bradley Wiggins documentary that stuck with him. “He described riding uphill like you put your head in a bucket of water and it doesn’t take so long before all you want to do is just get your head out of the bucket of water and just breathe,” Campenaerts said. “That’s a bit how climbing feels. But imagine you’re next to somebody and he also puts his head in his bucket of water. But you know, you just know, or you are convinced he will hold his breath longer than I. Yeah, then you don’t even try.”<\/p>\n

For Campenaerts, the key lies in building trust in your ability to suffer. “Once you get that confidence, you can dig so deep. It’s a mental game in how you approach the pain of riding uphill, and once you are confident that you know, I can handle the pain.”<\/p>\n

He also described the resilience needed to ride on the front on flat terrain, especially in chaotic conditions. “When it’s flat roads, hectic, you need to be in position, and you need like a truck that always is with his nose in the wind in the front and doesn’t give away the position on the first line. It’s a very tough job.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He then summarised the reality more plainly: “It’s people, of course, that I know quite closely who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,190593,190594,50055,79,180916,16,15,185123],"class_list":{"0":"post-609861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-grischa-niermann","10":"tag-jarrad-drizners","11":"tag-lotto","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-victor-campenaerts"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115656572071690457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}