{"id":93950,"date":"2025-08-26T12:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/93950\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:59:06","slug":"lidl-trek-sign-tour-de-france-femmes-stage-winner-ricarda-bauernfeind-on-two-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/93950\/","title":{"rendered":"Lidl-Trek sign Tour de France Femmes stage winner Ricarda Bauernfeind on two-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lidl-Trek have signed Tour de France Femmes<\/a> stage winner Ricarda Bauernfeind<\/a> on a two-year deal from 2026, the team announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In one of the few Women’s WorldTour transfers<\/a> confirmed so far, the young German talent will leave Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto<\/a> after four years \u2013 three on their WorldTour team, and one as part of their Generation development squad.<\/p>\n

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Bauernfeind was part of the first year of the Canyon-SRAM Generation team, and is one of its most successful alumni so far: in 2023, she won stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes<\/a> in just her first year as a professional.<\/p>\n

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However, despite being one of the German team’s best homegrown talents, she is headed for pastures new in 2026, joining Lidl-Trek<\/a> on a two-year contract and bolstering the team’s climbing personnel.<\/p>\n

“I learned how to be a road racer at Canyon SRAM. From the Generation team to the Women\u2019s WorldTour, I grew tremendously \u2013 learning the ropes, developing as an athlete, and celebrating some unforgettable victories with a supportive team,” Bauernfeind said in a Lidl-Trek press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, joining Lidl-Trek opens up an exciting new chapter filled with fresh challenges and opportunities. I\u2019ve always admired the Team\u2019s professional structure, which continues to evolve with Lidl\u2019s growing involvement. The riders, the racing style, and the long-term vision have consistently impressed me,” she continued.<\/p>\n

“What truly stands out is the Team\u2019s commitment to athlete development\u2014giving riders the time and space to grow. That\u2019s something I value deeply, especially as I still feel I have untapped potential, particularly in my GC ambitions.”<\/p>\n

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Despite her breakout success in 2023, Bauernfeind has struggled with a knee injury for the past 18 months, which has somewhat stalled her progress, but she is hoping to get back on track with her new team.<\/p>\n

She did ride the Tour this year, with her best results 14th on the final stage.<\/p>\n

“Lidl-Trek believes in my path, even after a challenging season with injury and fewer results. I\u2019m incredibly motivated to learn from the best in the world \u2014 both riders and staff \u2014 and to give everything I have for this Team. I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll reach the next level together,” she said.<\/p>\n

That confidence is fully reciprocated from her new team, who add Bauernfeind to a roster that includes fellow climbing GC riders Shirin van Anrooij<\/a>, Niamh Fisher-Black<\/a> and Gaia Realini.<\/p>\n

“Ricarda\u2019s talent is clear, and while the last two seasons have been particularly challenging, we believe she can return to her best \u2014 and go even further,” Lidl-Trek general manager Luca Guercilena said.<\/p>\n

“She has excellent racing instincts, as she showed with her Tour de France Femmes stage win. At just 25, Ricarda still has plenty of time to grow, and we will give her the right environment, expertise and support to help her maximise her potential. I\u2019m confident we will see her back to winning ways in a Lidl-Trek jersey.”<\/p>\n

Bauernfeind is Lidl-Trek’s first new signing to the women’s team for 2026, after confirming contract extensions for several of their riders. With Ellen van Dijk<\/a> and Lizzie Deignan<\/a> both retiring at the end of this year, the team has some space to fill in their roster, with 16 riders currently confirmed for next season.<\/p>\n

Cyclingnews will cover all of the 2026 cycling transfers<\/a> from around the men’s and women’s pelotons with news, analysis, and an updated transfer index<\/a>, to make sure you don’t miss a thing this transfer season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lidl-Trek have signed Tour de France Femmes stage winner Ricarda Bauernfeind on a two-year deal from 2026, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-93950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93950","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=93950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}