The Tour de France is the biggest race of the season for any team, where results are expected, sponsors want success and so the pressure is high.
Lidl-Trek are targeting the GC podium with Juan Ayuso and stages and the green jersey with Mads Pedersen but also undergoing a major management change, as Andy Schleck replaces Luca Guercilena, who will soon take on a senior management role at Giro d'Italia organiser RCS Sport.
As Ayuso, Pedersen and other riders talked about their Tour ambitions at the Lidl-Trek team hotel outside Barcelona, Cyclingnews saw Schleck and Guercilena cross paths several times but there was no eye contact or conversation. Both appear keen to ensure a professional handover but the atmosphere was far colder than the hotel air conditioning alone could have created.
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"I don't think I arrived here by accident. I arrived here because people believe in me," Schleck told Cyclingnews, Daniel Benson and Feltet.
"Trust is not handed out, trust is earned," Schleck added. "It's been a kind of journey. I knew that it was going to be a big challenge. I take it very, very seriously. It was not an easy decision, because I knew that also for me personally, my life is going to change."
Schleck retired in 2014 due to a knee injury after a career focused on Grand Tour racing. He was retroactively awarded victory in the 2010 Tour de France after Alberto Contador's doping case. He also finished second in the 2009 and 2011 Tours when riding for Bjarne Riis CSC team. He has owned a major bike shop, managed the Tour of Luxembourg and worked as an ambassador for Skoda since his retirement.
Schleck joined Lidl-Trek late in 2025, thinking he would be Guercilena's right-hand man before perhaps stepping up to the CEO or team manager role in four or five years. Lidl's decision to take a majority stake in the team from Trek changed everything, with Schleck quickly promoted and Guercilena exiting the team.
"Looking back the last 15 years, I was not sitting on my couch playing PlayStation," Schleck said, unafraid to respond to difficult questions.
"I do believe that with my past as a rider, from a kid from a small country growing up to racing in the WorldTour, winning big races, retiring by accident, and then building up something else - all these stages give me the qualification to lead a team like this.
"I think Luca understood that he brought the team to a certain level, and this is maybe the end of the road for him at this position. 15 years is also a long time. Maybe he wants to have a new challenge. I think what he learned here and the connection he made is the perfect education for him in starting his new role.
"It's been a very, very intense couple of months for me. A big thank-you to Luca, who really guided me. I was following him. I was next to him, and he taught me a lot of the details and the insights behind the team."
Schleck has been working intensely on his onboarding and has travelled a lot to talk personally to the hundreds of riders and staff that form part of the Lidl-Trek men's and women's WorldTour and development teams.
"Of course, there's a lot of change and change always creates some kind of anxiety. If you're in a comfort zone and then something new comes in, it makes people uncomfortable," Schleck said.
"There was maybe anxiety at some point, people were nervous, but we keep on working with the people we have. There are no layoffs. We just want to reinforce the team, with new knowledge coming in the existing structure."
Lidl-Trek will undergo more change later in 2026 after Grischa Niermann was head hunted from Visma-Lease a Bike as Chief Sporting Officer. Dan Lorang has left Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe to join Lidl-Trek as a Performance Director. Lidl-Trek described the changes as a 'leadership transition.'
"We want to be the best in class, so we need to get the best people in class, and I think Grischa is a very important element to that," Schleck said.
"I'm only as good as the people I surround myself with. Grischa has proven that he's good at what he does. That's the same with Dan Lorang and other people."
A top-three finish in Paris?
Schleck was keen to highlight how the team is changing direction, focusing on Grand Tours as well as the Classics.
"We're going in the direction that we want to be competitive in more than just the Classics. We believe in targeting the podium in the Grand Tours," he said.
"We will keep on focusing on the Classics too, We'll give support to Mads Pedersen and other riders."
Schleck has clear objectives for the 2026 Tour de France. Ayuso will target the GC podium, with Mads Pedersen targeting the first yellow jersey in Saturday's TTT and then going for stages and the green points jersey.
"It's 21 days, so there's 21 chances," Schleck said.
"The target is the podium, the target is the TTT, the target is the green jersey. We are not in the position that we go into the Tour de France with one leader, only UAE who can do that in my opinion.
"Juan is our leader but we also have Mattias Skjelmose in a co-leadership position as a protected rider."
Schleck seems to know that Pedersen is on form and hungry after missing the Tour in 2025.
"Mads has been training hard in the shade and performing in the shade, but he is ready," Schleck said.
"We have clear goals but we might have a surprise in the coming days with Mads."
Shleck admitted his stress levels are high as the hours count down to the start of the Tour, "and it will stay high for the next couple of weeks, I hope."
"I didn't sleep very well for the last couple of days, because I'm super nervous for tomorrow's TTT - and that shows that I'm here with a full heart."
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