Merger marks end of tough year: Intermarché-Wanty 2025 verdict

2024 will always be considered a significant year in Intermarché-Wanty’s history, simply because of their performance at the Tour de France. Three stage wins and the points classification for the history-making Biniam Girmay were a huge success.

The star ability of the Eritrean would have given the team the belief that a similar performance in the Tour 2025 was possible. But being one of the teams with a smaller budget, expectations remained realistic but with a glint of hope in pulling off another standout win or two in 2025.

In the transfer market, the team brought in six new riders, including the then Under-23 European Champion Huub Artz. However, lots of experience departed. Boy van Poppel, Baptiste Planckaert, and former Tour de France stage winner Lilian Calmejane retired. Meanwhile, fellow former Grand Tour stage winners Mike Teunissen and Rein Taaramäe moved on to pastures new, and two of the team’s more valuable assets, Rune Herregodts and Madis Mihkels, left.

This significant change in personnel was going to present plenty of challenges for the Belgian team in 2025, but there were still things to be positive about, including their star asset, Girmay. 

As well as Girmay, the return of Taco van der Hoorn, who had spent 16 months out of racing due to concussion effects from a crash at the Tour of Flanders in 2023, was a major boost. Van der Hoorn had won shortly after his return to racing at the Betcity Elfstedenrace in October, and the team would have been hoping the Dutchman could return to a level that saw him win a Giro d’Italia stage in 2021.

Wins: 4
UCI Ranking: 24th
The Verdict: 4/10

It’s been a tough year for Intermarché-Wanty on and off the bike. In terms of on the road, it’s the team’s most barren season since gaining a WorldTour licence in 2021 after being unable to replicate the heights of 2024. Since achieving 22 victories in 2022, the team’s yearly tally has declined, culminating in four victories this year, with none at the WorldTour level. 

Georg Zimmermann claimed two of those wins, winning the Giro d'Abruzzo and becoming the German road race champion. Meanwhile, Dion Smith won the Volta NXT Classic and Dries de Pooter ended the season on a high with a stage win at the Tour de Kyushu in Japan.

The retiring Louis Meintjes was the best-placed rider at both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, finishing 16th and 18th, and the team will be proud of their performance at Paris-Roubaix, too.

Off the bike, the team are set to merge with fellow Belgian side, Lotto. However, this means that many riders and staff are currently left in the dark over their futures, further casting a grey cloud on 2025 for Intermarché-Wanty.

Biniam Girmay was once more Intermarché-Wanty’s most valuable rider, with 1,646.0 UCI points across the season, over 3 times more than any other rider with the exception of Louis Barré. 

Girmay's fast finish and versatility allowed him to score consistent points in a variety of races, but the Eritrean went winless throughout 2025 despite this solid points haul. 

Compared to his 2024 campaign, where he claimed three stages at the Tour de France and the points classification, 2025 was a year of near misses for the Eritrean.

Finishing second on the opening stage at the Tour de France was a tough one to take for Girmay, coming so close to the yellow jersey, and with confidence being key for sprinters, who knows what could have happened if he had gone one better on the opening day in Lille.

Intermarché-Wanty have a strong track record at the Paris-Roubaix in recent years. 2022 saw the team finish fourth and sixth with Tom Devriendt and Adrien Petit, and had five riders inside the top 20. 2023 and 2024 saw ninth and tenth place finishes for Laurenz Rex and Madis Mihkels, respectively.

Paris-Roubaix was once more a successful outing for the plucky Belgian team in 2025, with Jonas Rutsch ending 6th after featuring in the morning’s breakaway. Laurenz Rex joined his German teammate in the top 10, placing tenth. Biniam Girmay also sprinted to 15th place.

Not many people would have taken note when Intermarché-Wanty picked up the Frenchman from Arkéa-B&B Hotels last year, but Louis Barré has already established himself as one of the Belgian team’s most important riders.

Beginning his season with plenty of strong performances in the early season one-day races, Barré headed into the classics with the potential to make some noise, and he did so with a 6th place finish at Amstel Gold Race.

The 25-year-old’s good showings continued towards the Summer, where he finished 3rd on stage 3 at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and wore the white jersey for a stage also. This was backed up with a combative performance at the French National Championships, where he rolled the dice in the final kilometres with an attack, and eventually settled for 6th.

The Frenchman also made his debut at the Tour de France, featuring in multiple breakaways, with two 17th-place finishes being his highest stage results. Barré’s final highlight of the season was a 6th-place finish at the GP Montréal after a determined performance.

Dion Smith and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk both started 79 times for Intermarché-Wanty in 2025, with the former racing the Giro and Vuelta, and the latter making his Tour debut.

• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Arkea B&B Hotels
• Bahrain Victorious
• Cofidis
• Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama-FDJ
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Lidl-Trek
• Movistar
• Picnic-PostNL
• Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
• Soudal Quick-Step
• XDS-Astana