{"id":353897,"date":"2026-01-05T20:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/353897\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:09:06","slug":"were-keeping-our-fingers-crossed-optimism-surrounds-tao-geoghegan-hart-ahead-of-his-third-year-at-lidl-trek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/353897\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We’re keeping our fingers crossed’ \u2013 optimism surrounds Tao Geoghegan Hart ahead of his third year at Lidl-Trek"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a hope that it will be third time lucky for the former Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a> winner Tao Geoghegan Hart<\/a> at Lidl-Trek<\/a>, as he starts his third season with the WorldTour team.<\/p>\n

The Brit has endured two years of misfortune and injury since joining the squad in 2024. In his first year, a fractured rib and a Covid infection ruled him out of the Tour de France<\/a>, while last season, he was sidelined by a stomach illness in the spring, and a chest infection in the summer.<\/p>\n

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Writing on Instagram last June, the 30-year-old said it was \u201cproving quite tricky to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together at once\u201d in his career.<\/p>\n

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Lidl-Trek\u2019s performance manager, Josu Larrazabal, has now said he\u2019s \u201coptimistic\u201d about Geoghegan Hart\u2019s prospects for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 2026, we’re entering the final chapter of his project: he had a three-year contract. The first two years went badly for various reasons, but I’m optimistic,\u201d Larrazabal told Italian outlet bici.pro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe finally managed to have a good winter. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, but so far it’s been ideal. He feels it too; he’s happy. He’s had a smooth run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geoghegan Hart\u2019s highest race placing since joining Lidl-Trek from Ineos Grenadiers in 2024 is third overall at last year\u2019s Tour of Slovenia. His last victory came at the 2023 Tour of the Alps, where he won two stages and the overall.<\/p>\n

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According to Larrazabal, the 2020 Giro winner<\/a> will not have a \u201crigid\u201d race programme this season. He will open his campaign at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, with either Tirreno-Adriatico or the Volta a Catalunya to follow.<\/p>\n

From there, the Brit will aim for a possible return to the Giro for the first time since 2023, when he abandoned the race with a fractured hip<\/a>. He has only raced one Grand Tour \u2013 the 2024 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> \u2013 since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how strong you are, no matter how many victories you’ve had in the past, when you go through such a long period where things aren’t going smoothly, things get tough, really tough,\u201d Larrazabal said. \u201cThis time we’re taking it one step at a time. And for now, the only certainty is that the winter went well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting specifically on the Giro, Lidl-Trek’s performance manager said Geoghegan Hart will need to be \u201cin certain conditions\u201d if he is to be on the start line. \u201cHe can’t just go there for the sake of it. It’s a race he’s won. To be there, he must first rediscover himself, the confidence and stability he’s lacked in recent years,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t even know if we’ll make the Giro, because we have to take several steps first. The priority is health, then consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nTao Geoghegan Hart
\n<\/a>
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\nLidl-Trek
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a hope that it will be third time lucky for the former Giro d\u2019Italia winner Tao Geoghegan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-353897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}