Lars Increase is leaving his function as sports activities director at SD Worx-Protime to affix FDJ-Suez, as introduced by the staff on Tuesday. The transition takes impact instantly.
The transfer has re-sparked hypothesis about whether or not Demi Vollering will comply with her former sports activities director to the French staff. Rumours have linked the Dutch star to FDJ-Suez for months, although no official assertion has been made to substantiate the transfer.
Increase, the 2008 cyclocross world champion and a stage winner in each the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, moved right into a sports activities director function after retiring in 2019, beginning at Liv Racing in 2021. The next yr, he moved to SD Worx-Protime, accompanying Lotte Kopecky in making the transfer.
“I’m very happy to affix FDJ-Suez, a staff [which] has acquired a shiny future forward. Stephen Delcourt’s imaginative and prescient for his staff is fascinating and I actually needed to play an element on this. What’s coming may be very thrilling and I look ahead to getting the [best] of the staff,” Increase mentioned.
Increase will strengthen the staff’s spring classics squad, and can work carefully with present DS, Nicolas Maire, and administrators of efficiency, Lieselot Decroix and Flavien Soenen.
“Lars Increase is an off-the-bike recruit we’ve got been ready for,” FDJ-Suez common supervisor Stephen Delcourt mentioned. “His aptitude and sharp tactical pondering, mixed together with his expertise in race course, will permit each athletes and workers from FDJ-Suez to maintain bettering.”
The Vollering switch saga began in March when she was shocked by an announcement made by SD Worx-Protime that she was leaving the staff. The assertion mentioned that Vollering and her administration had been offered with a “beneficiant supply”, which wasn’t responded to earlier than a deadline, main the staff to imagine she was leaving.
A month later, it was reported that Vollering was in negotiations with FDJ-Suez on a multi-year contract starting in 2025. Whereas Delcourt advised Cyclingnews that the staff would touch upon such negotiations, he additionally didn’t deny the stories.
In 2024, the 27-year-old Dutch rider claimed the general victory at Vuelta España Femenina, Itzulia, Vuelta a Burgos, and Tour de Suisse and took two stage wins on the Tour de France Femmes en path to second general.
However the staff techniques on the Tour de France Femmes raised eyebrows and reignited switch rumours when Vollering – then the race chief – was left remoted after a crash with 6km to go on stage 5, in the end costing the staff the yellow jersey.
