Rumors that Axel Merckx is a candidate for team manager of the 2023 Lotto Destony have been confirmed by the Belgian team, which is currently facing the double challenge of an impending relegation from the World Tour and no one to run the team.

After the announcement of John Lelangue's retirement, speculation is rife as to who will replace him.

Daan de Wever, CEO of new second sponsor Dstny, has revealed that Merckx is a candidate. This comes after Philippe Gilbert, who is nearing retirement, made it clear earlier this week that he is not interested in the position, despite multiple approaches.

Merckx, who most recently coached the North American under-23 team Hagens Berman Aktion, now lives in Belgium again. However, Merckx has never indicated any desire to take over as coach of Lot Destony.

According to Belgian media, de Weber claims that Lot Soudal's current predicament is partly due to the team's tendency to rest on its laurels. However, while he has proposed a major overhaul of areas such as the team's work with performance data, one of the team's key current goals, the development of young talent (20-year-old Arnaud de Lee being one example), will remain intact.

"Lotto has lived too long in the success stories of the past.

According to Dutch specialist website Wielerflits, de Weber said, "I also spoke to the performance officers of other teams and learned that we are behind in this area."

"We have a lot to gain in the area of data support as well. He also noted that human resource development should be done completely in-house. If we can catch up step by step, I am convinced that we can go back up again."

"We have a lot of work to do.

His contract with Dstny allows his company to pull out in the event of relegation from the World Tour, and despite severe doubts in May of this year as to whether he should continue to support the team, de Weber indicated that times have changed for the better in the past six months.

"Since then we have had numerous discussions with the board, management, riders, and everyone involved with the cycling team. It has given us great confidence for the future. It is clear that we need to start building the team again," he concluded.