A few days before the Giro d’Italia concluded, Lidl-Trek’s sports director, Michael Schär, told me a story which sums up the ethos of the team he works for. It isn’t an anecdote about how they have engineered Mads Pedersen’s stage victories and maglia ciclamino jersey, or about Daan Hoole’s triumph against the clock on stage 10. It isn’t even about tactics, or the podium, or how to win. It’s about empathy.
“Carlos Verona [one of the team’s experienced road captains] had a meeting with me and the other sports directors about the strade bianche gravel stage,” Schär said. “He told us he didn’t feel comfortable on those gravel roads. So we immediately pulled the plug and said there was no pressure on him that day, he could save energy and didn’t need to be in the mix with stuff like this. We always just listen to everybody and try to get the best out of them.”
Six days after the Giro d’Italia peloton raced on the white roads to Siena, Verona went on to win from the breakaway on stage 15, taking a stunning solo victory in Asiago. Sometimes, it isn’t about power numbers, race plans or marginal gains, it’s about fostering an environment where riders feel comfortable, supported and happy. This is Lidl-Trek’s winning formula.
“We don't push anybody. We are liberal. We're quite easy-going,” Schär continued.
On stage 17 of the race, I sat beside the Swiss sports director as he drove the team car on a rolling breakaway day to Bormio – it was a front row seat to how one of the best teams in the race operates. The banter between Schär and the rest of Lidl-Trek’s riders and staff before the racing even began was the first sign of the camaraderie and morale in the group. Hoole came to the window of the car and joked about whether there was a spare seat for him to get in and avoid the 3800 metres of climbing to come; Schär laughed with the mechanic about what they would have for lunch and accepted hugs and high-fives of good luck from other staff members. It was team spirit, personified.
“We’ve had this super successful Giro with six stage wins and it’s not something we planned beforehand,” he told me as the car rolled out from the start in San Michele all’Adige. “I would really put it down to our team spirit and the great atmosphere. You see when a team is clicking and working together – when it is like this, they dig deeper for each other. There is chemistry."
In order for a team to function successfully, there are particular roles that each rider needs to take. If you can create a roster of riders who excel in the uniqueness of their requirements, then the result, as Lidl-Trek have experienced, can be magic. One of the most important of these roles is that of the leader. Schär believes that Pedersen, the squad’s straight-talking Danish rouleur, is the perfect man for the job.
“Mads is a born leader, he's a leader by heart. It's a true pleasure to be around him. He doesn't see the pressure as a burden. He takes it in a good way. It's super nice to see how he leads the group, while at the same time, there is never anything that is not easy-going with him,” Schär explained.
“On the bike, he is an animal. He proves every race how good he is. This year in Paris-Nice we already saw his versatility with these climbing stages, breakaways and also how he helped Mattias Skjelmose. He's on it and he's actually almost made for these points jersey competitions as he can survive the climbs and has a really good sprint.”
Each time Pedersen won in the Giro, he thanked his teammates for the work they had done. Although the 29-year-old’s personal physical ability is special, he knows he wouldn’t have this same type of success alone. Schär explains that everyone on the team knows that while they may sacrifice themselves for another’s stage win, their day will also come at another point.
“For example, when a GC guy like Ciccone in Albania was already working for Mads on day one, this is giving and taking. Normally, GC guys, they're told to save and take it easy, but Ciccone even suggested himself to help out Mads,” Schär explained. “Then Mads paid him back.”
As we spoke, the breakaway formation phase of stage 17 was unfolding on the road. Lidl-Trek had put Pedersen and Mathias Vacek in the big group up the road – the Danish rider would do his best to make it to the first intermediate sprint and add to his points tally, then he would do all he could to help Vacek – the rider who had sacrificed so much in this race for Pedersen to get his stage wins.
On the first climb of the day, the Danish rider came back to pick up a water bottle for his Czech teammate from the car, and as the more experienced of the pair, he was advising Vacek on how much work to do in the breakaway from the off. Eventually, Pedersen had to let the front group go on the climb and was swamped by the peloton, but he had fought as hard as he could to be there for his teammate until then. He knew that Vacek would do the same for him in a few days time on the sprint stage to Rome.
Despite all of their success in this race, however, the Giro had not been without setbacks for Lidl-Trek. Their general classification hopeful and home-favourite Giulio Ciccone crashed on stage 14 and was forced to abandon the race – a big blow to the American squad who had put a lot of time and resources into targeting the pink jersey with their Italian climber. It was how they responded to that disappointment – with Verona’s stage win – that Schär believes was key.
“Of course, it is human and normal to be disappointed. We gave this 24 hours window where it was allowed to be disappointed – it was a moment of shock to lose Chico, it wasn’t nice,” he explained.
“In the evening, though, you saw how the boys stood together. Chico came back from the hospital to the dinner table and they had a great atmosphere. They build each other up which helps first of all with Chico’s recovery because mentally he’s not as disappointed, but it also helps the others move on.”
He explained that Verona was the first to suggest that they use the loss of Ciccone to ride in his honour, trying to win in the name of an injured teammate. There was no discussion about the wasted work that the Spanish rider had done to protect Ciccone in the earlier stages, riding in the wind and on the front of the bunch. It was about turning a new chapter and making the best of a bad situation.
“We had a good meeting the next day with Carlos. He mentioned it might be the moment to step in and to go for his own chances. I was in many other teams and when you lose the leader the next day most guys say ‘but I’ve worked so much, it’s a bit tough to show yourself after 10 to 13 stages of working on the front and the switch the button to start winning because you have fatigue when other riders could save energy.’ With us, this was not even a topic, it was just about goals and trying to go for it on the stage,” Schär recalled.
Although he made a valiant effort in the break, Vacek didn’t end up winning stage 17 of the Giro for which I was in the team car – he was caught on the final climb by a storming Isaac del Toro in the maglia rosa. He would safely make it through the rest of the mountains to the final stage in Rome, though, alongside the rest of Lidl-Trek, and they would take home the maglia ciclamino with Pedersen.
When that day came on stage 21, the entire Lidl-Trek team staff wore personalised t-shirts to celebrate the Danish rider’s jersey victory and their individual stage win successes – the team’s press officer even let Pedersen spray-dye his hair purple. Outside the bus, once the sprint finish had come to a conclusion, the riders chatted and celebrated, looking like a group of friends as much as they were colleagues.
It has been one of the best Grand Tours in the team’s history so far, and if they manage to keep riding this high as the season progresses, there are surely more victories to come. Lidl-Trek proves that bike racing goes far beyond the bike itself. As Schär explained, the team’s riders are not treated as robots, but instead are seen for the humans they are – flaws and all. This is what makes it work.
“We had a really good time at this Giro,” Pedersen said at the finish in Rome. “We have six stage victories and the ciclamino jersey, it's incredible. We had a really good time. For us this is absolutely insane, not a lot of teams will ever be able to do this.”
