Each water bottle of our Tour riders will have a sticker with a personal encouragement of a fan!

With the Lotto Science Chair at the VUB the Belgian National Lottery supports scientific research linked to cycling. The National Lottery wants to contribute to optimizing sport performances. Lieselot Decroix, rider of the Lotto Belisol Ladies team, holds the chair.

Since two weeks the off-season has started for the U23-riders. The Lotto Belisol team has won 31 times in 2014. Sports director Kurt Van de Wouwer looks back at some highlights.

Tomorrow, Saturday 18th October, Frederik Willems will ride his last race as a pro, in Sint-Jan-in-Eremo. The 35-year-old man from East-Flanders will become sports director in the Lotto Soudal team next year. At the beginning of August Willems fell at a training trip and got some severe injuries. He needed surgery of his collar bone. This forced him to rest some weeks. Since three weeks he started training again. Just a few ribs are still causing some problems.

Lotto Belisol participates in Paris-Tours tomorrow. It will be the penultimate Europe Tour race for the team this season. The race starts at a quarter past eleven in Bonneval and ends after 237.5 kilometers in Tours.

The 2014 cycling season is almost coming to an end. Tim Wellens set a strong result in the last one-day race of the WorldTour. He animated the final of Il Lombardia and became fourth.

The Eurometropole Tour (Franco-Belge in the past) is the last stage race on Belgian soil of this season. The four day stage race (Europe Tour 2.1) starts on Thursday and goes through the provinces of Hainaut and West Flanders.

Six Lotto Belisol riders will be at the starting grid for the world championships road cycling on Sunday. Two Belgians, a Frenchman, a German, an Australian and a New Zealander.

The 2015 season will be the début of Frederik Willems as sports director. In August the 35-year-old Belgian decided to put an end to his career as pro cyclist, after he had incurred several severe injuries due to a nasty crash.