Lotto Soudal will make a management change at the end of this season, after a turbulent four years with John Lerangue at the helm as the team struggled to avoid relegation to the World Tour.

Lerangoux was appointed general manager at the end of 2018, a time when the long-running Belgian team underwent a major management shakeup that created tension within the team.

As a result, the team slumped for several years in terms of results and was almost certain to be relegated from the World Tour at the end of the season.

The team confirmed the news in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

"It is John Lelangue's own decision to leave the team, and we will do so on the best of terms," said Yanny Heck, CEO of Lotto, the team's lead sponsor.

Axel Merckx holds this position but owns the Hagens Berman Axiom development team. He was based in Canada but has reportedly returned to Belgium.

Lelangue's departure from Lot Soudal was first reported in Belgian newspapers on Thursday. He claimed that he was surprised by the news but decided to leave the team.

"My decision was actually already made during the Tour," Lelangue said, claiming that the team was developing well under his management. In August, I presented my decision to the board. It has nothing to do with whether or not I will join the World Tour. I decided that after four years I had fulfilled my mission and was ready for a new challenge.

"We leave as even better friends than when we started the team and I value continuing to work with the team until the last day so that we can start next season as we should.

"On January 1, we will begin a new challenge on the World Tour. I can't say at the moment exactly what that means."

Lelangue takes over from Paul de Geyter, who spent less than a year at the helm of the Belgian team. His predecessor, Marc Serge, was relegated to a less influential role until he stepped down at the end of 2021. At that point, Jana Schiele from Astana took over as chief business officer.

After a strong first season in 2019, results plummeted in 2020 and 2021, just in time for the start of the UCI's three-year ranking system to determine World Tour licenses for 2023-2025.

This year's results picked up, thanks in part to 21-year-old newcomer Arnaud Des Ries, but with less than three weeks until the end of the season, the team is deep in the relegation zone.

Lotto Soudal, fighting for 18 World Tour licenses, is 19th out of 20 and needs to overturn a 1,000-point gap.

With a relatively strong ranking in 2022 alone, the team would qualify for an automatic wildcard for all World Tour races in 2023 as a second division professional team.

However, this safety net would only apply next year, and to secure a spot in the Tour de France, the team would need to finish as one of the top two teams again in 2023 and 2024, while also aiming to return to the World Tour in 2026 This would mean.

The circumstances surrounding Lelangue's departure are unclear: Het Laatste Nieuws suggested that his contract was not renewed, while the CEO of the national lottery, Lotto, was quoted by Sporza as saying that it was Lelangue's own decision.

With his performance faltering, Lelangue's transfer policy was also called into question. Large annual salaries were paid to the aging Philippe Gilbert and John Degenkolb, with little in return in the way of results. Meanwhile, with the exception of De Lier, the team acquired young players who were perhaps not ready to contribute the points needed to keep the team in the top class.

Last year's Tour de France saw lead sprinter Caleb Yuan suffer a crash retirement.

At the end of this season, co-title sponsor Soudal switched sponsorship to rival Belgian team QuickStep, which will be replaced by cloud communications company Dstny until 2024. The team will continue to receive support from the long-running lot, but will likely be a second-division professional team with a new coach.