How Lazkano's exit and Peiper's push brought Arne Marit to Red Bull

Arne Marit was at the Tour of Guangxi in mid-October when he finally learned that he would not be a part of the merged Intermarché-Lotto squad for 2026. Like so many of his teammates, the Belgian had been kept in the dark for much of the summer, with management insisting they were bound by confidentiality.

“I think they all wanted to say something, but they also were not allowed from above,” Marit told Domestique. “They were not able to speak, and that was the biggest problem for everybody.”

It was, Marit conceded, a “bittersweet” way to end his three-year association with Intermarché-Wanty. “Our biggest flex, I would say, is that despite the merger, we were all the time committed to the plan, and we raced as a team,” Marit said, though he also knew it was every man for himself in the late scramble for a contract for 2026.

Marit’s lengthiest discussions were with Groupama-FDJ, but he detected a lack of urgency from the French squad. In the meantime, those talks were overtaken by events at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. 

The firing of Oier Lazkano after news broke of his biological passport case meant there was suddenly a spot available on the roster. The hiring of Allan Peiper as a consultant, meanwhile, meant that Marit had someone to bat for him at Red Bull.

“After four weeks, we still did not have an agreement with FDJ. At the same point, you had the situation with Oier Lazkano and his blood passport, and they put him on the street,” Marit said. “Allan Peiper is a really good friend of mine, and he asked me if the deal was done with FDJ already. I said the talks were still going on, so I actually didn’t know what to do.”

Peiper swiftly arranged a call with Red Bull’s new Head of Sport, Zak Dempster, and an agreement was promptly reached. “We had the call, and the next day I signed already the pre-contract,” Marit said. “So it all went pretty fast from the moment that Zak called me.”

Despite the sour ending to his Intermarché adventure, Marit was at pains to express his gratitude to the team that brought him to the WorldTour from Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise. “It’s only a bit sad that it has to end like this, but that for sure doesn’t change my mind about how I felt the past three years in the team,” Marit said. “I’m really thankful for the chances that Aike Visbeek gave me. For example, I got to sprint in the Grand Tours.”

Marit had plenty of placings, including third in Zaragoza on this year’s Vuelta a España, but a win evaded him throughout his time at Intermarché-Wanty. At Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, he is already aware that he will be deployed as a lead-out man rather than a sprinter, but he pointed to Danny van Poppel as an example to follow.

“Danny started as a lead-out guy, and now he’s one of the sprinters here in the team, so that must be the goal, to develop towards this role,” Marit said. “I’m aware that I have to start at the bottom of the ladder and I have to climb up. It starts with doing good lead-outs, and then I can do good sprints.”

The 26-year-old will also be a fixture in Red Bull’s cobbled Classics unit, which will hope for better after a lacklustre showing last Spring. Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogacar and Mads Pedersen remain the men to beat on the cobbles, of course, but Marit will hope Red Bull can use their numbers with riders like Laurence Pithie, Gianni Moscon and Jan Tratnik on the roster.

“I think we have to look back to the QuickStep team from, like, five years ago,” Marit said. “We don’t really have a really super big leader in the team, but we have a lot of cards to play.”

Marit was speaking to Domestique at the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe media day in Mallorca last week, where new arrival Remco Evenepoel was the star attraction. His fellow Belgian will lead Red Bull at the Tour de France alongside Florian Lipowitz, but Marit smiled as he recalled being on hand for Evenepoel’s first, fledgling outings as a bike rider in the Spring of 2017, shortly after he had swapped football for cycling.

“It’s a really big bonus to have Remco here in the team, because he also takes away a lot of pressure for us Classics guys, I think,” said Marit.  “I have known Remco already for quite long, because I was actually one of the first guys that he sent a message to when he was still a football player. He was like: ‘How do I approach a time trial?’ I won the national district championship, which was his first race. He got fourth, I think, just on a normal bike. I had a TT bike, and he was only like 20 seconds behind, so I realised already that this guy had some potential.” 

That’s something of an understatement. But while all eyes will be on Evenepoel’s progress in 2026, Marit has ambitions of his own. Winning his first race since 2021 is a target, but the main goal is to demonstrate value to his new team.

“I want to be a really consistent rider and show that I have my place here in the team and that I can contribute to all the victories they’re aiming for,” he said. “I want them to be able to say, ‘Okay, this was this victory was also thanks to Arne.’”