Juan Sebastián Molano joins Lotto-Intermarché on two-year deal from 2027

Juan Sebastián Molano will leave UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the end of the 2026 season and join Lotto-Intermarché on a two-year contract.

The 31-year-old Colombian sprinter has spent the last eight seasons in the UAE structure but will now move to the Belgian team in search of a more clearly defined role around his own sprint opportunities. Lotto-Intermarché have made that intention explicit, with Molano describing the move as a chance to become a “100 per cent sprinter” again after several years in one of the strongest and most multi-layered squads in the peloton.

Molano arrives with proven top-level speed. His palmarès includes victories in Belgium, the Grand Prix de Denain, stages at the Vuelta a España and UAE Tour, and a long record of competitive results in fast finishes against WorldTour opposition.

“After eight years in the same environment, I think this move will do me a lot of good,” Molano said. “I felt it was time for something different, and I’m convinced that a new and fresh environment will take my motivation to an even higher level.”

Molano will return to a more specialised sprint role

The biggest attraction of Lotto-Intermarché appears to be clarity.

Molano has spent much of his career at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, a team increasingly built around Grand Tour ambitions, stage-race leaders and riders capable of winning across almost every terrain. Within that structure, sprint opportunities have not always been the central priority.

At Lotto-Intermarché, the expectation is different.

“Here, I’ll be a 100 per cent sprinter again, and I’m really looking forward to that,” Molano said.

That role should give him more freedom to build his season around races where his finishing speed can become the primary tactical plan rather than one option among many.

For a rider now entering his early thirties, that may be particularly important. Molano does not need a developmental programme. He needs enough race opportunities, lead-out support and team commitment to convert the speed he already has into more victories.

His ability to do that was still evident during the 2026 Renewi Tour, where ProCyclingUK identified Molano as one of the main sprint threats ahead of Stage 2.

His Belgian one-day results make the move a natural fit

Molano’s record in Belgium is one of the reasons the transfer makes sense.

He won the 2025 edition of what was then Classic Brugge-De Panne, a result that now sits in the direct history of the renamed Ronde Van Brugge – Tour of Bruges. ProCyclingUK’s history of the men’s Ronde Van Brugge – Tour of Bruges lists Molano among the recent winners alongside Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier and Sam Bennett.

He returned to the race in 2026 as UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s headline sprint option, with the team-by-team guide highlighting how well his ability to handle a slightly messy, attritional sprint suits Belgian racing.

Those are exactly the sorts of races Lotto-Intermarché regularly target.

The Belgian calendar rewards teams willing to commit fully to difficult one-day racing, often in conditions where positioning, crosswinds and repeated accelerations matter just as much as outright speed.

Molano clearly sees that environment as part of the attraction.

“I still remember the time when my current teammate Tim Wellens raced in Lotto colours,” he said. “When I was a kid, André Greipel was one of my big heroes.”

That Greipel reference is particularly fitting. Lotto’s modern identity has long included major sprint leaders, and Molano arrives wanting to embrace exactly that tradition.

The Tour de France is now a major personal target

The most eye-catching part of Molano’s announcement is his ambition to race the Tour de France.

Despite his long career at WorldTour level, he has never started the race.

“I also dream of the Tour de France, which I’ve never raced before,” Molano said. “That will be a huge motivation for me.”

A move to Lotto-Intermarché could give him a clearer route to that objective than he had at UAE, where Tour selection has increasingly revolved around GC support, climbing depth and the ambitions of Tadej Pogačar.

Molano’s best argument for a Tour place will be straightforward: win races early in the season and prove that he remains one of the team’s strongest sprint options.

If he does that, a Tour debut at 32 would become a realistic target for 2027.

Lotto-Intermarché want his experience as well as his speed

CEO Jean-François Bourlart highlighted more than Molano’s finishing ability when explaining the signing.

“Sebastian is a rider who fits perfectly with what we want to add to our team,” Bourlart said. “He has pure speed, but also the experience to position himself at the key moments and finish off a race.”

That experience is valuable.

Molano has spent years racing inside one of the most successful teams in the world, competing in major stage races and one-day events while learning how to survive and win at the highest level.

For Lotto-Intermarché, the attraction is not simply adding another fast rider. It is adding one who already knows how to convert a good position into a victory.

“He has raced at the very highest level in recent years and knows what it takes to win,” Bourlart said.

Molano has already delivered at Grand Tour level

The new team are not gambling on whether Molano can handle the pressure of major races.

He has already won at the Vuelta a España, including the final stage in Madrid in 2022, and has repeatedly taken sprint victories at stage-race level.

His UAE Tour record also demonstrates the same finishing ability. ProCyclingUK covered his Stage 4 victory at the 2023 UAE Tour, where he beat Olav Kooij and Sam Welsford after timing his sprint perfectly.

That sort of result explains why Lotto-Intermarché still see significant value in giving him his own opportunities.

Molano is not being signed because he might develop into a winning sprinter.

He already is one.

The question is whether a structure more consistently built around him can increase how often those victories arrive.

Eight years at UAE comes to an end

Molano’s departure will close a long chapter in his career.

Eight seasons with the same structure is a significant period in modern cycling, particularly in a transfer market where riders increasingly move every two or three years.

During that time, Molano developed from a powerful fast finisher into a regular WorldTour sprint winner and reliable stage hunter.

The UAE team around him also changed enormously. What was once a squad with a broad range of ambitions became increasingly centred on Grand Tours and Pogačar, with some of the strongest riders in the world competing for race programmes and leadership roles.

Molano’s decision to leave therefore looks less like a rejection of that environment and more like an attempt to find a structure better aligned with what he still wants from the final phase of his career.

“Even after all these years in the peloton, that’s still what I am: motivated to achieve results,” he said.

Lotto-Intermarché are offering freedom

That desire for results is central to the move.

Bourlart made clear that Molano will not be arriving purely as an experienced lead-out rider.

“With us, he will have the freedom to fully go for his own opportunities again,” he said.

That should be the defining feature of the transfer.

Molano is still fast enough to win at a high level, but those opportunities depend heavily on whether the team commits to him. Lotto-Intermarché appear willing to do exactly that.

The Belgian squad should also be able to build a race programme around the types of events he already knows suit him: flatter WorldTour one-day races, selective semi-Classics, sprint-heavy stage races and, potentially, the Tour.

Lotto-Intermarché continue shaping their 2027 roster

Molano’s arrival adds another important piece to a Lotto-Intermarché roster that is already taking shape for next season.

The team have also been securing existing riders, including Lars Craps through the end of 2028, while adding experienced specialists and developing riders around the wider programme.

Molano gives them something particularly straightforward: a proven finisher who can be given responsibility immediately.

He should not require several seasons to understand his role. The team want sprint victories, Molano wants his own sprint programme again, and both sides are openly targeting the same thing.

That clarity makes this one of the more logical moves of the current transfer window.

A fresh environment could come at the right time

Molano turns 32 during the 2027 season, so this is not a move built around long-term development.

It is about getting the most out of the next two years.

His own comments suggest he believes the change of environment can provide exactly that.

After eight seasons with UAE, almost every element of his professional routine has been familiar. New staff, new team-mates, different race planning and the atmosphere of a Belgian team could provide the reset he is looking for.

That should also create an immediate test.

Lotto-Intermarché are signing Molano because they believe he can still win. He is joining because he wants the responsibility that comes with being a designated sprinter again.

There is very little ambiguity in what success will look like.

The Tour dream gives the move a clear objective

The two-year contract gives Molano enough time to establish himself without removing the urgency.

His first season will already be shaped by the Tour ambition.

To make that selection, he will likely need to show strong early-season form, perform in the Belgian one-day races he clearly enjoys and demonstrate that Lotto-Intermarché can trust him to deliver in the biggest sprint stages.

That makes 2027 potentially one of the most important seasons of his career.

Molano has already won at the Vuelta, the UAE Tour and major Belgian one-day races.

The Tour remains the obvious missing experience.

The move will be tracked alongside the other confirmed deals in ProCyclingUK’s men’s cycling transfers hub.

Lotto-Intermarché are giving Molano a fresh environment, a clearer sprint role and the freedom to chase the one major Grand Tour experience he has yet to have.