Lidl-Trek had a clear transfer policy ahead of the 2024 season: invest in the future. The US-based Women's WorldTour outfit signed no fewer than five young talents straight from the junior ranks.
Teutenberg’s team acquired the services of 2023 junior time trial World Champion Felicity Wilson-Haffenden of Australia, multi-discipline Canadian twins Ava and Isabella Holmgren, Gent-Wevelgem-winning Brit Issy Sharp and junior road European Champion Fleur Moors of Belgium.
“I think it's just nice to try to work and bring up the talents from within, not just buying good talents,” the team’s director Ina Yoko Teutenberg told Cyclingnews.
“The men [Lidl-Trek men’s team] have a devo team coming on and we had the thinking of maybe developing a devo team as well to have it separate from the women's team, but we thought it's a better idea to actually embed it and then have some older riders go with the young ones to teach them more.”
The new riders are five of the highest-rated juniors from this year’s crop and expectations are high for what each of them can achieve in their careers. However, Teutenberg is focussed on keeping their wheels on the ground in these formative years.
“We can't really expect huge results for them because it's a big step… Time will tell, I think they have some talents and they'll show what they can do, but this is a whole different ball game so we'll see what they evolve into.”
Races will tell where their talents go
Wilson-Haffenden and Sharp conquered the steep, cobbled slopes to Stirling Castle to claim the top-two positions in the junior individual time trial at the 2023 Road World Championships.
Both have clear potential to become world-class time triallists, but Teutenberg is wary of pigeon-holing her young stars too early.
“I think with 18-year-old riders, it's really dangerous to say you're going to have to grow into this because we would crack them with the pressure. We're going to have to see what they do and how they can do and find the natural way about it.
“Yes, we have some good time triallists there. Will they be competitive in the elite time trial? Who knows? Maybe one of them develops into a sprinter. You even see this in the men's peloton with the likes of Marcel Kittel, he came as a time triallist from under-23 and turned into one of the best sprinters in the world.”
Teutenberg is excited by the prospect of developing these young riders, but is also aware of the challenges ahead. With the absence of an established Under-23 category in the women’s sport, currently, race schedules will be carefully selected, ensuring that they are not thrown into the deep end too soon.
“I think with going to .1 and .2 races, you can kind of do the same thing. You don't throw them into the big races and you develop them," she said.
“I think right now we probably don't have enough young ones to have a whole under-23 race scene going on…It would be nice to have a couple more specific under-23 races. It doesn't have to be a whole calendar…I think it's important that the young ones actually see that they can ride well and have success so they stick around.”
Guiding such young riders is a delicate task, with bodies and minds at such a malleable stage. Caution, patience and adaptability are all key elements to the German’s teaching plans.
Also important will be the role of the older riders on the team. Lidl-Trek have a well-balanced roster in 2024. The five teenagers are complemented by the experienced heads of the likes of Lucinda Brand, Amanda Spratt, Lizzie Deignan and the returning Ellen van Dijk. Teutenberg will be relying on these stalwarts of the peloton - some of them 18 years more senior than the youthful five - to mentor and guide.
“The young ones won't be doing a lot of the big races, but there will always be an older one doing some of the smaller races,” Teutenberg said. “It’s just normal as a more experienced rider, you give your experience and the young ones have to look, listen and learn.
"I think this is nothing I really have to put out there, this is just a natural thing. The older riders take responsibility.
“We're just going to have to show them the right way and try to grow them into good professionals. A lot of the older riders will take a big part in that. And then go from there - the races will tell where their talents really go to.”
Rough 2023 season
The young signings come off the back of what Teutenberg describes as a difficult season for Lidl-Trek women, despite finishing second in the UCI team standings.
The team won 14 times in 2023, including the Trofeo Alfredo Binda in March with Shirin van Anrooij and stages of the Giro and Vuelta. However, they lacked the consistency needed to challenge SD Worx throughout the season.
Teutenberg puts the inconsistency down to bad luck. Injuries and illness plagued the squad, particularly in the spring.
“It was a rough season for us. We had quite a lot of injury and sickness on top of Lizzie [Deignan] coming back not until April - and that was already earlier than she planned. And then Ellen [van Dijk] being out for pregnancy. The season wasn't good enough," she summed up.
"We should have won more for sure, but there were really bad patches of luck. With Elisa [Longo Borghini] being sick earlier in the year, crashing out of the Giro, being sick and having to leave the Tour, and then being extremely sick afterwards and not coming back for the season.
“It's really hard to replace all these people and then there are for sure some other people who had to raise a little bit more…I think we managed it OK. It's really hard when you have a team of 14 and all of a sudden, six people are out for one reason or another, and there's not really a whole lot you can do. Simply the luck was never on our side. It's good the season was over when it was over.”
Teutenberg did temper her disappointment with the encouraging performances of two of Lidl-Trek’s younger riders. She points out that Van Anrooij and Italian climber Gaia Realini made “big steps” in their development as they manoeuvred themselves into the void created by the absence of others.
Looking ahead to next season, Teutenberg is trying not to imagine a repeat of 2023.
“I hope we're not going to have about 20 broken bones in the season and all these sicknesses. You can't really go into the season thinking that we're going to have as much bad luck again as we had because this was extreme this year.
“We're going to do what we do. We're going to work on a good race schedule for everybody and then, you know, I can't think of the worst scenario again, because that would be a pretty negative outlook on the season already.”
“We go in there positive that everybody stays healthy, everybody does their stuff in the winter and then we're going to have a good season coming from that.”
Lidl sponsorship brings growth to women’s team
In reflecting on the 2023 season, the Lidl-Trek management realised that they needed to add depth to their women's squad.
Not only will the addition of these young racers help the team to plan for the future, but they also add extra cover for more senior riders in 2024. The squad number increases from 14 in 2023 up to 19, making Lidl-Trek among the largest women’s teams in the world by squad size.
The management believe that this increase in personnel will help the team to be competitive at the highest level throughout the season. The extra budget for this expansion is thanks to the organisation’s mid-season move to bring on Lidl as a new title sponsor across the women’s and men’s teams.
“Our biggest change [with the increased budget] is that we made our team bigger and we have pretty much a whole development squad within the squad with five young riders we signed. I think it gives us a little bit of the leverage on building for the future.”
The injection of cash from Lidl will enable the team to grow across the board, building the infrastructure they need to take on SD Worx and their other rivals in the future.
“We're for sure going to be more focussed... with the team getting bigger and the structure getting bigger and bigger, we will grow into doing more of those combined training camps together… I'm doing some altitude camps with the GC riders and all this stuff,” Teutenberg said.
“Besides that, the approach is the same. We had pretty much everything we needed before and there wasn't really anything we didn't get.
“We're going to do more races because we have a bigger team, and we're going to develop these young riders… I think that is the biggest step.”
