Ladies Sandrine Tas and Lotto-Intermarché strengthen their commitment
Sandrine Tas has certainly made her mark since joining Lotto-Intermarché. After bringing her speed skating career to an end in March, following the World Speed Skating Championships in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, to become a full-time professional cyclist, Tas quickly made an impact within the team. One month after hanging up her skates, she was at the start of La Flèche Wallonne, and by the end of May she had already taken her first two victories at the Bretagne Ladies Tour. Sandrine Tas raced the Tour de France Femmes, claimed silver at the Belgian Time Trial Championships and bronze in the road race. And this weekend in Canada, she will be part of the Belgian squad for the World Championships. Her development has not gone unnoticed outside the team either, but Tas has consciously chosen to continue building her sporting future within the familiar environment of Lotto-Intermarché.
“I feel at home here and I really want to continue building together with this team,” says Sandrine Tas. “The team believes in me, and I can feel that in everything. The riders, the staff, but also the National Lottery, Intermarché, Orbea… I work extremely well with my coach Arno Claeys and, at this point in my career, I want to continue that collaboration as well. I also haven’t experienced a full spring Classics campaign yet, and that is something we really focus on as a Belgian team. I simply see so many opportunities within our team, not only to gain experience and keep learning, but also to continue developing as a rider here and pursue great results together. I feel like we are only at the beginning of what we can achieve together. It is the combination of all those factors that makes me really want to continue building my future at Lotto-Intermarché.”
CEO Jean-François Bourlart and Sports Manager Kurt Van de Wouwer are delighted with the mutual trust: “Sandrine has made remarkable progress over the past few months. Of course, we knew she had that absolute elite athlete mentality, but the way she has managed to make the transition from speed skater to cyclist in such a short period of time only makes us believe that there is still a lot of room for further development. It is only natural that this kind of progress gets noticed and attracts interest from elsewhere. For us, it was therefore important to do everything we could to keep Sandrine on board and show her how much confidence we have in her. We have consciously invested in her further development and want to provide her with the best possible support to take the next steps in her career. We strongly believe in her as a rider and are convinced that we can still achieve a lot together. That is why we are very happy that Sandrine also sees her future at Lotto-Intermarché and that we can continue building her cycling career together.”
Picture: Cyclingmedia_agency
