Belgium's Lotto Doustony has declined invitations to the 2023 Giro d'Italia, Tirreno Adriatico, and Ituria Basque, opting instead to focus on gaining important UCI ranking points later in the season.

According to Belgian media, the team prefers to focus its efforts on non-World Tour races like the Four Days of Dunkirk, which will be held at the same time as the GIro d'Italia.

Teams are demoted from the World Tour after the 2022 season and must finish in the top two professional teams in the annual team rankings in order to be invited to Grand Tours and other World Tour races in 2024. WorldTour teams are obligated to compete in all WorldTour races, but the top ranking pro team may decline invitations to some WorldTour events.

The Belgian team, now known as Lotto Soudal but to be rebranded as Lotto Doustony, has participated in the Giro d'Italia every year since 2023, becoming an important rider and winning 31 stages in the last 20 years.

However, their decision on the race calendar is logical.

"In order to start the second half of the season as fresh as possible, we will cancel these races but finish the rest of the World Tour calendar," team sports manager Kurt van de Wouwer told Het Nieuwsblad (open in new tab).

Lot.

Lot Doustney has already decided not to participate in the Santos Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in January, and the Australian, like Caleb Yuan, will join the Australian national team for the 2023 World Tour He will be competing in his first race.

Ewan is expected to be the leader of the Lotto-Destney bunch sprint at the Tour de France, while Arnaud de Lee continues to develop his sprinting talent.

"I want to give Ewan a chance to win a stage at the Tour. The other riders in the Tour will have the opportunity to go to high altitude training during the Giro," Van de Wouwer explained.

"We also want to collect points and in May and June we can collect points mainly in one-day races and smaller stage races.

Van de Wouwer also said that the team budget has not been cut, but rather will be allocated differently in 2023.

De Rie will target sprints and classics, but will not compete in the Grand Tours in 2023; after winning nine races in 2022, De Rie has already presented himself as a contender for Paris-Roubaix.

Lot Destney's absence from the Giro is notable due to their high stage win rate, with Thomas De Gendt's victory in Naples last May fresh in their minds.

Sprinters Robbie McEwen, Andre Greipel, and Caleb Ewan all have proven themselves on flat stages, with four of Ewan's five stage wins in the Giro recently coming in lot colors.

One of the team's most spectacular successes since it began competing in the Giro d'Italia in 2000 was the opening time trial in Abruzzo in 2001, when Rick Verbrugghe took the Grand Tour's fastest ever average speed of 58.8786 km/h to He won the pink jersey.