Lidl-Trek have confirmed a host of senior leadership changes that will occur after this year's men's Tour de France and through the summer, including the departure of long-term team manager Luca Guercilena, and the arrival of Grischa Niermann, whose exit from rival team Visma-Lease a Bike was announced Tuesday morning.
Andy Schleck will step up to replace Luca Guercilena, becoming CEO after being appointed as the team's Deputy General Manager in December.
Alongside Niermann's arrival as Chief Sporting Officer (CSO) at the team, which was reported heavily on Monday evening, they have also recruited another performance director from a rival squad, Dan Lorang, who left Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in April.
The changes will primarily come into effect after the Tour de France on August 1, apart from Niermann's arrival, which will be on September 1 after his tenure with Visma expires.
The Lidl-Trek structure includes a men's WorldTour team, Women's WorldTour team, men's U23 development team and men's junior outfit.
Guercilena makes way for Schleck
Guercilena's exit is perhaps the most shocking change at Lidl-Trek, with the Italian at the helm for 16 years since being a founding member of the Leopard-Trek outfit in 2011.
He has been General Manager since then, including a period away to recover from cancer, and holding firm through the team's evolution that saw German supermarket chain Lidl take a controlling stake in the company in 2025.
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However, Guercilena will exit the team he helped build at the end of July.
"After 16 unforgettable years, I feel the time is right to hand over leadership and allow the team to enter its next phase with fresh impulses and drive that will spark new hunger to keep pushing the limits," he said in a team press release.
"I turn the page knowing that I leave behind a strong organization made up of great professionals, a group of athletes capable of winning now and in the future, and a strong and determined ownership committed to taking cycling to another level. The team has given me incredible emotions thanks to athletes, staff, sponsors, and owners from whom I have always received great support, especially in difficult moments. Lidl-Trek will forever be the team closest to my heart."
Guercilena (left) alongside Andy Schleck (right) in his final season as a rider in 2014 – Schleck has now effectively taken his old boss' job (Image credit: Getty Images)
The team confirmed that Guercilena, who was just in Rome to see Jonathan Milan win the final stage of the Giro d'Italia for Lidl-Trek, will "remain fully active in his role through the 2026 Tour de France, ensuring a smooth handover".
Once he departs, Andy Schleck will take over as CEO, which is a newly created role. The 2010 Tour de France champion rode for Leopard-Trek as a rider, but only returned to the team's management at the end of 2025 as Guercilena's deputy.
"I'm incredibly grateful for the trust placed in me to lead this team of extraordinary people into its next chapter and continue building on the strong culture and winning mentality he established," he said.
Dan Lorang among recruits from rivals
Alongside the changes at the very top, the team is revamping its sporting structure, with Niermann coming on board after a successful, Grand Tour-winning tenure at Visma, news that was expected after his departure from the Dutch team was confirmed earlier this morning.
In at Lidl-Trek
🤝 Grischa Niermann: Chief Sporting Officer – joins from Visma-Lease a Bike
🤝 Dan Lorang: Head of Performance – joins from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
🤝 Martijn Redegeld: Head of Nutrition – formerly of Visma-Lease a Bike
🤝 York-Peter Klöppel: Mental Performance Manager – joins from Red Bull's Athlete Network
What comes as more of a surprise is the arrival of Dan Lorang as the team's Head of Performance, and the head of a newly-formed 'Crivit Performance Center', coming over after departing Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe earlier this year.
According to the team's press release, Lorang's role will be under Niermann and involve "overseeing the areas of Coaching, Nutrition, Health, Recovery and Athletics, as well as Data & AI".
Lorang had worked with Red Bull athletes including world champion triathletes before his time at the cycling team, and has long been regarded as one of the sport's leading performance directors.
The Crivit Performance Center – named for Lidl's clothing brand – will be a joint venture between Lidl-Trek and the Schwarz Group, Lidl's parent company, and looks to be similar in mission to the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre, providing performance support in several key areas.
Alongside Lorang's role as head of the center, the new venture will welcome former Visma-Lease a Bike nutritionist Martijn Redegeld as Head of Nutrition, and York-Peter Klöppel will lead the Mental Performance branch, coming over from Red Bull's athlete network.
The background to these latest changes
This broad round of personnel changes represents the start of a new era for Lidl-Trek, but it has not been long since the last staff and structure changes at the team.
The arrival of Lidl in 2023 marked the very start of changes at the team, with the supermarket brand taking controlling stake in mid-2025, and the structural changes have come rapidly since then as former pro Thomas Rohregger took control as Head of Cycling at Lidl.
It started with two relatively minor sports director appointments, with Bernie Eisel joining the men's team and Fränk Schleck joining the women's team in November.
However, changes ramped up when Andy Schleck joined as Deputy General Manager in December – not a role that had existed at the team before. Fränk was promoted soon after, taking over at the helm of the women's squad, replacing Mick Rogers in April.
As well as a canny recruitment from a rival team, Lorang's appointment tracks with the arrival of the Schleck brothers. Leopard-Trek was initially set up as a Luxembourgish outfit, built around the pair, and Lorang is also from Luxembourg, the small landlocked country in northern Europe.
The quick succession of significant changes come as Lidl-Trek attempt to step up to the level of the sport's super teams, like UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike, with cash injection from Lidl.
That mission has included signing men's Grand Tour contenders Juan Ayuso and Derek Gee-West over the winter, signing a lifetime contract with star Classics rider Mads Pedersen, and reportedly exploring the possibilities of signing women's stars including Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Paula Blasi.
Though done in the name of "supporting the continued ambitions, growth and professional development of the organization", the team's sweeping changes have also drawn some skepticism, with several senior shake-ups in just a matter of months raising some questions about team stability and wider-team buy-in to the new management structure.
Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more. She has reported on the ground at all of the biggest events on the calendar, including the men's and women's Tours de France, the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a Espana, the Spring Classics and the World Championships. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.
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