Lidl-Trek completed third within the males’s UCI rankings and is now turning into one of many sport’s tremendous groups, however crew supervisor Luca Guercilena expects much more in 2026, particularly after signing Juan Ayuso because the crew’s first true Grand Tour contender.
Due to the crew’s energy within the sprints and the Classics, withJonathan Milan, Mads Pedersen, Mattias Skjelmose, Giulio Ciccone and different riders, Lidl-Trek males received 46 instances in 2025.
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“We’re at the moment in an period the place Tadej Pogačar is clearly higher than everybody else, with different riders like Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel additionally making historical past. However biking is cyclical and new riders and new groups will emerge in the end.
A part of Lidl’s headquarters in Dangerous Wimpfen, close to Stuttgart, will turn out to be the crew’s logistics centre and a devoted efficiency centre is deliberate, alongside additional long-term funding within the males’s and girls’s WorldTour groups and the world-class males’s growth crew. The crew will even have the ability to faucet into the technological experience of Schwarz Digits, the digital arm of Lidl homeowners Schwarz Group.
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‘We have been paid again for all our efforts in 2025’
The Lidl-Trek males’s crew climbed from twelfth within the 2022 UCI crew rankings to seventh in 2023, fourth in 2024 and now third in 2025.
Mads Pedersen received 4 phases ands the factors jersey on the Giro d’Italia, Jonathan Milan received two sprints on the Tour de France and the factors jersey, whereas Mattias Skjelmose beat Pogačar and Evenepoel to win the Amstel Gold Race and Pedersen received Gent-Wevelgem and Giulio Ciccone received San Sebastian.
In considered one of his revealing new Substack posts, EF Schooling-EasyPost sports activities director Tom Southam topped Lidl-Trek as the perfect crew within the males’s peloton at positioning.
“Being in place on the key second together with your greatest riders able to unleash their w/kg might be a very powerful factor in biking at the moment,” Southam famous.
“We have been paid again for all our efforts in 2025,” Guercilena says with pleasure.
“In the previous few years we have labored on growing and enhancing the crew and our outcomes have now adopted. We have been aggressive on virtually each entrance, up there with the most important groups and all the time within the race. Consistency makes a distinction.”
Guercilena’s private spotlight of 2025 symbolises the tradition and sense of unity at Lidl-Trek.
It was not a selected race or outcomes, however how Mads Pedersen understood that he and Jonathan Milan can not each goal sprints and the factors jersey on the Tour and so accepted to trip the Giro d’Italia, with Milan making his profitable debut on the Tour. It was a mix of the crew’s tradition and good rider administration that led to success.
“I particularly appreciated the dedication of the riders for the broader good of the crew. Each rider is bold at this degree and has private targets however all of them know that the crew comes first,” Guercilena says.
“Mads confirmed his management and stature within the sport and in our crew this yr,” Guercilena provides with real gratitude.
“He was paid again for accepting to trip the Giro and miss the Tour in so many various methods. The Italian tifosi liked him and I feel he liked that affection and the success.
“Mads’ success in Italy added additional stress on Jonathan as he made his debut on the Tour however he confirmed his character. He was anticipated to win sprints and win the inexperienced jersey and he confirmed he may try this.”
In fact there have been many different excessive factors but in addition many low factors, together with the gaping gap in Lidl-Trek’s Grand Tour GC outcomes. Tao Geoghegan Hart was unable to trip a Grand Tour for various well being causes, his return to type after his femur fracture and different setbacks needing extra time. Skjelmose was additionally sick simply earlier than the Tour and finally climbed off within the Pyrenees. Ciccone began the Vuelta strongly but in addition fell sick.
“We had plans and hopes for the Grand Tour however they merely did not work out, it was in all probability essentially the most irritating factor of the entire season,” Guercilena admits.
‘It was not our type however it needed to be achieved’
With that lack of Grand Tour leads to thoughts, it was no shock that Lidl-Trek wished to signal 23-year-old Juan Ayuso when it grew to become clear that the Spaniard could possibly be in the marketplace.
There have been stories that Lidl-Trek will make investments near €25 million throughout the following 5 years on ‘Venture Ayuso’. This features a reported €10 million wanted for the Spaniard to purchase out his contract with UAE Staff Emirates-XRG after which his €3 million a yr wage for the following 5 years.
The crew will little question additionally put money into its Grand Tour squad and efficiency workers, to assist goal the Tour de France podium and finally, maybe in a post-Pogačar world, victory within the largest race within the sport.
Lidl’s long-term investments within the crew and now their majority possession have been absolutely the driving drive for the deal, confirming the Grand Tour ambitions and far of the funding wanted to make it occur.
Guercilena and his administration crew normally have a extra conservative method to signing and growing riders. They do not quickly abandon riders in the event that they underperform and have opted to develop expertise in home relatively than splash thousands and thousands on present huge’s identify riders.
I am not that fascinated with a rider’s earlier conduct however how they behave once they’re with us.
Luca Guercilena
With Ayuso out of the blue in the marketplace and Lidl stepping up their funding and involvement within the crew, it was the proper time for a strategic change in type and route.
“It is not our type however it needed to be achieved,” Guercilena tells Cyclingnews of the choice to signal Ayuso in what was a reasonably dramatic method.
“We have been monitoring the market and so we have been all the time prepared if the prospect got here to signal a Grand Tour contender. We have got Mattias and Giulio within the crew for Grand Excursions and different future skills however when Juan got here in the marketplace, we made our transfer. While you’re bold and a possibility comes your means, you have to step-up and signal sure riders.”
Lidl-Trek introduced the signing of Ayuso on September 25. The day after, Skjelmose publicly questioned Ayuso’s arrival and puzzled how it could have an effect on his Grand Tour alternatives. Different riders maybe requested the identical questions.
Ayuso shortly performed down any issues and the current low season get-together at Lidl’s headquarters helped clear the air. The true extent of any inner rivalry will solely be seen subsequent season and if Skjelmose finally decides to stick with the crew past 2026. It is going to be as much as Ayuso to point out he has modified and matured after moments of rigidity at UAE.
“Including a brand new crew chief can create some stress, particularly for the opposite riders and I feel Mattias’ preliminary response was comprehensible even when it was a little bit misplaced and did not actually assist issues,” Guercilena tells Cyclingnews of Ayuso’s integration into the Lidl-Trek crew.
“We have all the time proven that Lidl-Trek can construct a loyal and united crew and I am positive my workers have the power to try this once more. We’re enthusiastic about having signed Juan. I am not that fascinated with a rider’s earlier conduct however how they behave once they’re with us. We’re assured he’ll match within the crew very well.”
It is logical that Ayuso will goal the Tour de France in 2026, particularly after the massive funding to signal him. He confirmed his Grand Tour potential with third on his debut on the 2022 Vuelta a España. He was fourth within the 2023 Vuelta however then was hit by COVID in the course of the 2024 Tour, as his relationship with the crew and with Pogačar worsened.
He was given management standing on the 2025 Giro however then Isaac del Toro surged away on the gravel stage to Siena and Ayuso crashed. He by no means recovered mentally and bodily and finally climbed off on stage 18
His divorce from UAE was introduced in the course of the Vuelta, with him describing the crew as a ‘dictatorship’. He went on to win two phases from breakaways however completed 68th total and was remoted from his crew. His transfer to Lidl-Trek was introduced two days after the Vuelta and he by no means raced in UAE colors once more, solely using the World and European Championships with Spain.
Ayuso has the expertise to be a podium contender on the 2026 Tour. Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard are once more anticipated to combat it out for victory; there isn’t a purpose why Ayuso cannot tackle Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, and others for the combat for a last podium place.
The following step up for Lidl-Trek
Groups choose to maintain their Grand Tour methods beneath wraps till all three race routes are recognized, have been analysed and crew methods mentioned at size by administration. Lidl-Trek’s sports activities administrators and efficiency workers are nonetheless working by means of the method for 2026.
“Our first purpose is to win a Grand Tour, then we wish to win the Tour too. The Tour is the large purpose, the most important purpose in biking, everyone knows that,” Guercilena says.
“Our choices for our 2026 targets are nonetheless open. We have by no means gone down the plain route of simply specializing in the Tour, even when it is the most important race of the yr. We’ll make our personal targets and plans that swimsuit our targets, our riders and our long-term technique.”
The primary steps in planning for 2026 have been made on the crew’s current get collectively in Germany. Skjelmose hinted that he may not trip the Tour in 2026 however we are going to solely know extra in December and even January, when Lidl-Trek reveal their plans.
In fact, Guercilena has some private ambitions which are a part of a wider, extra detailed plan.
“I would like to see Mads win a Monument Traditional. We deserve an enormous win like that and so does Mads,” he says, fastidiously setting the bar excessive for his riders.
“We might additionally like to verify Jonathan Milan’s sprinting success and have extra success from different riders like Skjelmose, Ciccone, Quinn Simmons and others. All of them stepped-up on in 2025, getting outcomes once they have been anticipated and beneath stress to get them. That is completely different from earlier than, once they have been maybe underdogs. This yr they have been anticipated to win they usually did.
“I am additionally curious to see what Albert Philipsen, Mathias Vacek, Thibau Nys, Jakob Söderqvist and Tim Torn Teutenberg can do. We have additionally signed Matteo Sobrero, Mathias Norsgaard and Max Walscheid to strengthen the core of the crew for key roles.
Guercilena is finally liable for making the strategic sporting choices at Lidl-Trek. Within the subsequent few weeks, he must resolve if Ayuso targets the 2026 Tour and what which means for the remainder of the crew and the 2026 season. He will even need to resolve if Lidl-Trek can goal the Tour, stage wins and the factors jersey and so if Milan or Pedersen are given the protected sprinters function within the eight-rider Tour line-up.
“I do know that Mads would like to win the inexperienced factors jersey on the Tour and we’d too. He is one of many leaders and is a charismatic chief within the crew,” Guercilena says, explaining the significance of his choice for 2026.
“The ultimate choice shall be a sporting and efficiency choice made in the course of the winter. It is finally my choice. It will not be simple however we made the proper choice for 2025 and so I feel we are able to get it proper for 2026 too.
“Due to Trek’s imaginative and prescient and assist lately and now Lidl’s backing, we’re assured concerning the future. We’re working exhausting to make sure all the things is in place for long run success. As is claimed, I am positive our time will come within the years forward.”
