Belgian team Lotto-Dstny has announced that it will leave the UCI Pro Team after two and a half years, losing its cloud-based business communications solution, Dstny, in 2025.

Dstny began sponsoring the team early for two seasons in 2023 and 2024 and has had its name on the team jersey since the 2022 Tour de France, but it appears that the enthusiasm at the start of the deal has run its course.

The team parted ways with bike brand Ridley early in 2023, bringing Orbea on board, but Dstny has announced that it will cease to be the main sponsor at the end of this season. A replacement sponsor has not yet been announced.

"Dstny's departure is nothing to worry about," Lot-Dstny president Karel van Eotveld said in a statement. 'Various discussions are taking place and hard work is being done to secure the team's future.'

"The National Lottery continues to be our primary partner, having supported us in previous difficult times. We are determined to continue building on the solid foundation we have today."

Lotto has been a team sponsor since the team's early days, starting in 1985, and in the process has signed sponsorship agreements with more than 10 other sponsors, including Suredal, Silence, Movistar and Merckx.

"As the oldest team in the peloton with 40 years of rich history, we have seen partners come and go. That's part of cycling. We have a long-term international agreement with Orbea, and we have other partners who are also part of ......." We believe in the strength of the team and ensure that our foundations remain strong."

While Dstny viewed its relationship with the cycling team positively, the departure was confirmed following earlier reports that interaction with the same name sponsor had been more difficult. [Dstny CEO Daan De Wever told De Tijd, "Our relationship with the lottery was not successful from the beginning. We quickly realized that the Lottery was not willing to share power in the composition. They wanted to have the last word in all decisions, both sports and policy. The culture, the style, the collaboration was not what we had in mind"

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However, the media release announcing the split pointed to the beautiful story that Lotto and Dstny had created together: the team was relegated from the World Tour in 2023, Arnaud de Lee won the road title in June, and Victor Campenaerts recently won a stage at the Tour de France, and the Lotto Dstny Development team saw Jarno Wieder win the Giro Next Gen.

"We secured all the talent for the future, which was our top priority. Youthful enthusiasm, engaging racing, and being a challenger to the big teams will remain part of the team's DNA in the coming seasons," said Stéphane Oyraud, CEO of Lotto Dstny.

"Furthermore, I would like to emphasize that behind the scenes there has been excellent cooperation over the past two and a half years to make this success possible. Important decisions were always made by the board of directors based on mutual consultation and mutual trust. The team could always count on them."