The Lidl-Trek we are facing a very important year. The German supermarket chain has become the full owner of the team, has attached the German flag to the team’s license and has made very significant investments, both on the CycleMarket of the runners and regarding the strengthening of the entire structure. In the face of all this, it is inevitable that the underlying objectives are very ambitious, also considering the level that the team managed by Luca Guercilena it had already managed to achieve in the past years, so much so that 2025 saw it finish in third place in the world rankings, not too far from Visma|Lease a Bike.
“We shared with them the results to aim for for 2026 – says the Lidl-Trek sports director, Steven de Jonghin an interview with In the Leader’s jersey – There is talk of a podium place at the Tour de France, winning the points classification at the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France (with Jonathan Milan in the first case and with Mads Pedersen in the second – ndr), the victory of a Monument Classic and at least 50 overall victories over the course of the season“.
Not a little… “With the arrival of Lidl we have reached a completely new level – adds the Dutch technician – The support structure has become much broader and many people have been included in the various sectors. The intent is to continue to grow in the coming years too. We already knew in 2023 that their arrival would be a factor, but now they are even more involved“.
So much so as to plan a transfer of the entire “operational headquarters” of the team, which had long been located in Belgium, to Deinze, and which will instead be moved to Germany. “We will move to Bad Wimpfen in the Baden-Württemberg region, where a new training and performance center will also be built from scratch. Lidl is also working with some companies that are its direct collaborators to understand if there is room for growth in other sectors too. We are embarking on a completely new path.”
This could be compared to what Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe has at its disposal in Salzburg, Austria: “The project I saw, as far as we are concerned, is very promising – adds De Jongh – The process is following it Thomas Rohregger (who was a runner on the then Leopard-Trek between 2011 and 2013 – ndr), with the collaboration of people linked to Bayern Munich. Yes, it’s a football team and not a cycling team, but we’re talking about the highest level possible for a sport. I repeat, the plans look very promising indeed.”
The ambitious objectives inevitably pass from the Grand Tours and, as regards 2026, from what Juan Ayuso will be able to do at the Tour de France, where he will face infernal competition: “We are very happy to have him with us – the thought of the Dutch sports director – We had long wanted to compete for the top positions in the three-week races, and this put a lot of pressure on Mattias Skjelmose and Giulio Ciccone, who don’t want to race the Grand Tours with rankings in mind. Ayuso has the potential to win them, the Grand Tours, and this is also his ambition.”
And, in all this, it should not be forgotten that Lidl-Trek could also join, following a new CicloMercato movement, Derekcurrently dealing with a legal dispute with what was called, until a few weeks ago, Israel-Premier Tech…
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