Lidl-Trek have signed Gaia Realini by way of to the top of 2027, asserting the hefty contract extension with the Italian rider who was fast to impress in her first season with the crew 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 likewise 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, gained a stage at La Vuelta Femenina and got here third general in Spain and likewise on the Giro d’Italia Donne.
“My first yr with the crew, the one which has simply ended, went past my wildest expectations,” stated Realini in a crew assertion. “It was actually arduous to ask for extra. I made sturdy performances and achieved high outcomes, however the biggest success was the boldness and consciousness I gained.
“I joined the crew on tiptoes, with the curiosity of discovering a brand new world, and I discovered myself unexpectedly underneath the highlight. Due to the Workforce and my household, I learnt the right way to handle this and take essentially the most out of it, race after race.”
Realini now enters her second season with the crew as one of many few riders inside the ladies’s peloton who already has her future secured by way 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 good problem that the Workforce 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 Workforce and the way valued I felt.
“Now, we’ve new targets. Initially, turning into an more and more strong climber in stage races; then, getting as shut as attainable to the good GC riders of the WorldTour.”
Lately 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 crew specifically have made it a formidable rival to all within the ladies’s peloton, with Lidl-Trek the one crew in a position to come near difficult the squad’s dominance in recent times. Realini, nonetheless, is already beginning to grow to be one of many groups greatest property in its pursuit of high finishes at among the world’s greatest races.
“In 2022, we did know we signed large expertise, an incredible climber, however I obtained actually impressed on how rapidly she tailored on being half an enormous Workforce, 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 large steps in a powerful straightforward manner.
“She’s mentally so sturdy, in addition to being superb on the bike, and that was her key to grow to be in only one yr one essentially the most promising skills within the peloton. Collectively, we wish to proceed on this rising path to steer her, within the coming future, among the many strongest rider of girls’s biking.”
