{"id":392409,"date":"2026-01-05T04:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392409\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T04:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:34:12","slug":"will-the-surprise-of-2026-at-lidl-trek-come-not-from-pedersen-or-ayuso-but-from-a-forgotten-giro-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392409\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the surprise of 2026 at Lidl-Trek come not from Pedersen or Ayuso, but from a forgotten Giro winner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

He once had the world at his feet \u2014 when Tao Geoghegan Hart looked to be back at his very best in the Giro d\u2019Italia in 2023 and appeared primed to challenge for overall victory. It seemed like a repeat of his breakthrough in the delayed 2020 edition, when he finally made his mark with a Grand Tour win. But more than two years on, the now-30-year-old Brit has slipped slightly out of the spotlight\u2026 for now. <\/p>\n

In that 2023 Giro, everything went disastrously wrong for Geoghegan Hart when he crashed badly on a descent and broke his hip. His season was over, and so was the momentum he had built after moving from INEOS Grenadiers to Lidl-Trek as a key Grand Tour leader. <\/p>\n

How would he come back from such a serious injury? In 2024, things looked promising: his form improved and a Tour de France leadership role seemed within reach. However, misfortune struck again \u2014 a crash in the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 followed by a bout of COVID-19 derailed his preparation. Subsequent setbacks, including another illness during the Tour of the Alps, forced him out of contention for the Tour de France once more<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"tao<\/p>\n

Geoghegan Hart at the 2023 Giro, when he was in excellent form, but fell<\/p>\n

Geoghegan Hart must stay fit after three years of setbacks<\/p>\n

In 2025, Geoghegan Hart made another run at top-form. After a solid winter and a top-10 finish in the Volta ao Algarve, he was dealt more bad luck \u2014 this time illness in the Tour de Catalonia. His season again ended without the breakthrough results many expected. <\/p>\n

His coach, Josu Larrazabal, recently told Bici<\/a> that the former Giro winner still has the talent and racing DNA to return to his best. \u201cTao was hit by a wave of bad luck last year, but we also invested in him,\u201d Larrazabal said. \u201cIf we can start 2026 fresh, there\u2019s still a strong rider inside him. Health comes first, then consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is this optimism based on? “He finally ran a good winter. We are keeping our fingers crossed, but so far it has been ideal. Tao feels the same, he’s happy. No matter how strong you are and how much you have won, when you go through such a long period where things are not running smoothly, it gets tough, really tough.”<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"taoGeoghegan Hart to the Giro via Valencia?<\/p>\n

Lidl-Trek\u2019s roster for 2026 is packed with headline names \u2014 Mads Pedersen, fresh off a standout Giro d\u2019Italia where he won stages and the points classification \u2014 and Juan Ayuso, the Spanish GC talent whose move to the team this winter has been one of the biggest talking points of the off-season. <\/p>\n

Ayuso\u2019s signing \u2014 after an early exit from UAE Team Emirates-XRG \u2014 puts him at the centre of Lidl-Trek\u2019s Grand Tour ambitions, and he\u2019s expected to ride both Classics and the Tour de France in 2026. Pedersen remains the team\u2019s top sprinter and a contender for the Tour de France points jersey, while Mattias Skjelmose, Jonathan Milan, and others round out a deep squad.<\/p>\n

But while Pedersen and Ayuso grab most of the headlines, it\u2019s Geoghegan Hart\u2019s story that could provide the season\u2019s biggest surprise \u2014 if he finally puts his health and confidence together. A rider who once looked destined for Grand Tour glory might \u2014 at long last \u2014 justify the faith Lidl-Trek showed when they signed him as a leader. “Step by step,” Larrazabal stressed. <\/p>\n

“We are going to approach things a little differently, we want to give him other incentives. After his training camp in January, he will ride the Tour of Valencia, with which we want to give him a good start. That will be followed by the Tirreno or Catalonia. We are also thinking about the Giro d’Italia with him, but then he needs a certain level of fitness. He has to find himself again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He once had the world at his feet \u2014 when Tao Geoghegan Hart looked to be back at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,49602,85,184620],"class_list":["post-392409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-lidl-trek","tag-sports","tag-tao-geoghegan-hart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}