Lidl-Trek have signed Gaia Realini by means of to the top of 2027, saying the hefty contract extension with the Italian rider who was fast to impress in her first season with the group in 2023.
On her very first outing with Lidl-Trek final season Realini supported teammate Elisa Longo Borghini to victory on the UAE Tour and in addition joined her skilled teammate on the rostrum in second. She then continued on to scoop up victory on the Trofeo Oro, hit the rostrum at La Flèche Wallonne, received a stage at La Vuelta Femenina and got here third total in Spain and in addition on the Giro d’Italia Donne.
“My first yr with the group, the one which has simply ended, went past my wildest expectations,” stated Realini in a group assertion. “It was actually onerous to ask for extra. I made robust performances and achieved prime outcomes, however the biggest success was the arrogance and consciousness I gained.
“I joined the group on tiptoes, with the curiosity of discovering a brand new world, and I discovered myself unexpectedly below the highlight. Because of the Crew and my household, I learnt find out how to handle this and take probably the most out of it, race after race.”
Realini now enters her second season with the group as one of many few riders inside the girls’s peloton who already has her future secured by means of to the top of the 2027 season.
“One yr after, ambitions and views have modified. The bar and the expectations have been raised: that is the nice problem that the Crew and I wish to win,” stated Realini. “The contract renewal is, for me, placing pen on paper the attestation of how a lot I like to trip with this Crew and the way valued I felt.
“Now, we have now new targets. Firstly, changing into an more and more stable climber in stage races; then, getting as shut as attainable to the nice GC riders of the WorldTour.”
In recent times first Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) and now Demi Vollering (SD Worx–Protime) have been the dominant riders at key stage races. The depth of the expertise within the Dutch group particularly have made it a formidable rival to all within the girls’s peloton, with Lidl-Trek the one group capable of come near difficult the squad’s dominance in recent times. Realini, nonetheless, is already beginning to grow to be one of many groups greatest belongings in its pursuit of prime finishes at a few of the world’s greatest races.
“In 2022, we did know we signed enormous expertise, a tremendous climber, however I bought actually impressed on how shortly she tailored on being half an enormous Crew, an enormous group and, race after race, how she managed to take the management when wanted,” stated Lidl-Trek DS Ina Teutenberg. “At her age, she managed to have a number one function and the accountability with innate facility. She made enormous steps in a formidable simple manner.
“She’s mentally so robust, in addition to being superb on the bike, and that was her key to turn out to be in only one yr one probably the most promising skills within the peloton. Collectively, we wish to proceed on this rising path to guide her, within the coming future, among the many strongest rider of ladies’s biking.”
