Lotto Soudal is reportedly restructuring his team for the 2021 season, and 10 players have been notified that their contracts will not be renewed this year.

According to Het Laatste Nieuws, 39-year-old Adam Hansen, a stage winner at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España and a nine-year veteran of the Belgian team, tops the list of reportedly leaving the team.

Tomasz Martinski, 36, a two-time stage winner at the Vuelta, is also leaving the team he has been with for five years, as are 34-year-olds Sander Armé and Nicolas Maes. Also on the list are Jere Wallaise, Tosh van der Sande, and Brian van Goethem, as well as the young trio of Jonathan Dibben, Remy Martz, and Rasmus Iversen.

The ten received the news on Friday, a few days before the UCI's deadline for renewal of the joint contract (open in new tab), "On or before September 30, before the end of the contract, each party must notify the other in writing of its intention to renew the contract, if the contract has not already been renewed." We are told. Otherwise, the contract will be automatically renewed. [Star riders such as Caleb Yuan, Thomas De Gendt, Philippe Gilbert (all signed for 2022), Tim Wellens, and John Degenkolb (all signed for 2021) make up the bulk of the upcoming wage budget, and the team faces a budget shortfall of 2 million euros for the upcoming season. It is said that the team faces a budget shortfall of 2 million euros for next season.

However, team boss John Lelangue told Het Nieuwsblad that the move is "not a matter of budget, but of philosophy. When I took over, I said I would choose young players.

"Why do we need a development team if we are just going to let players go?"

"All the players we bring in have offers from other World Tour teams, and some, like Andreas Krohn, have already proven something. They are not coming in looking for a minimum contract."

Van der Sande replied to the letter: "You don't have to be a genius to know that that letter is not good news. This is the first time in my career that I have received such a letter."

Worlays, on the other hand, was surprised by the news. They should have just told me to my face."

The team has already announced a number of new players for 2021, but with the exception of rewire Andreas Krohn, all the names confirmed so far will join as neo-professionals.

Ronde de Lissart winner Zandre Vervrosem joins Sebastien Grignard, Harry Sweeney, and Viktor Versheve from Lot Soudal's U23 team, Sylvain Monique from Groupama-FDJ Continental team, and Filippo Conca will join from Biesse Arvedi.

The move to release one-third of the team's existing players means that there will be 23 contract riders in 2021, 14 of whom are under 25 years old.

Wellens signed a contract renewal with the team in April, while Ewan and his primary lead-out men, Roger Kluge and Yasper de Baist, were extended through 2022 last winter, and De Gendt signed an extension in July. Meanwhile, Stan DeWolf (AG2R Citroen) and Karl Frederik Hagen (Israel Startup Nation) have already agreed to join other teams.