Lidl-Trek clear on Tour ambitions: 7 out of 8 riders already selected, Mollema, Oomen or Declercq to take final spot?

Giulio Ciccone, one of the riders who showed tremendous growth in 2023, was set to continue his upward trajectory with Lidl-Trek in 2024. However, an annoying saddle sore injury sidelined him for months. He missed his beloved Giro d'Italia – which he had also missed the previous year due to COVID – and only made his season debut at the end of April in the Tour of Romandy. Cycling Pro Net caught up with him on behalf of the Dauphiné organizers in the opening days, while IDLProCycling.com had already discussed everything we were dying to know with Lidl-Trek team director Steven de Jongh!

With a new schedule and several important training weeks behind him, everyone is curious to see where Ciccone stands in terms of his new goals. After missing the Giro, the Italian – who last year impressed with stage wins in the Tour of Valencia, the Tour of Catalonia and the Dauphiné – shifted his focus to the Tour de France-Vuelta a España double. "My form is starting to improve just in time. The last few months have not been easy, but I feel better and the Dauphiné will be important to see where I stand. I am looking forward to it after a good altitude training camp with the team. We have Tao (Geoghegan Hart, ed.) for the GC and Mads (Pedersen, ed.) for the sprints, but I also want to try something. I am certainly planning to make a move in the tougher stages."

The above were Ciccone's words in preview, following which he immediately made his mark in the first stages of the Dauphiné. After achieving sprint success with Mads Pedersen in the opening stage, Ciccone made the most of the hillier stages two and three, ending up fourth in both, which also earned him the green points jersey. "I'm here to try something, to test myself and to understand where my form is at. Monday was a good opportunity for me, but I was not exactly happy with a fourth place. I would like to achieve better results," he said before the start of the third stage, regarding his first podium on Monday.

After Tuesday's stage, he was also slightly disappointed with the result. "It was a crazy finale because it was a fast climb. The team did perfect work, but I made a mistake and was too far back in the final kilometer. I had to sprint twice." Despite this, the first days in the Dauphiné have given Ciccone confidence. "My legs and the way I'm feeling are good. After a long time of problems, it's especially important for my mind to be competing for the win again. In the coming days, it will get tougher, then I want to see where I really stand."

Okay, that covers the first three Dauphiné stages. Let's go back to the Saturday before the race. That's when IDLProCycling. com had an extensive chat with team director De Jongh, who seemed to have a kind of prescient ability regarding Ciccone. "Giulio is a comeback kid. He's hardly raced, apart from Romandy and Eschborn-Frankfurt. After that, he also did an altitude training camp. It went well, so now he can fully focus on the Dauphiné and the Tour. And return to his old self, though I suspect he will manage that. If he gets through the first few days well, I expect we will see some great things from him!" the 50-year-old Dutchman said enthusiastically at the time.

"Cicco will often have to figure out where he stands at the start of the races. But once he has the mental confirmation that he can actually compete for the win, he will definitely try to win a stage," continued De Jongh, full of praise. "With Giulio, we can go in several directions. Last year, he also beautifully won the polka dot jersey in the Tour. That was unique, especially since Jonas Vingegaard was so dominant in the high mountains. It's a bit like what you saw with Tadej Pogacar in the recent Giro. Then those points for the mountain classification are quickly gone, which made Giulio's performance all the more impressive."

We can certainly expect Ciccone to be a key player in the most important cycling race of the year: the Tour de France. However, there's also a chance that the cheerful Italian might have to work in support of intended leader Tao Geoghegan Hart, another comeback man. The Brit had a serious fall in last year's Giro, resulting in a hip fracture, followed by a long and partly completed rehabilitation trajectory in Amsterdam. Geoghegan Hart officially joined the ambitious Lidl-Trek as the new grand tour leader on January 1, 2024, making his first race appearance in the Tour of Algarve. And that was – so soon! – immediately successful, with several top ten finishes in grueling stages.

"For our intended leader Tao, this is also his last big test before the Tour," explained De Jongh. "He's come a long way, considering the injury he had. Every stage race he's ridden this season has gone better than the last. So we hope that he gets a little better in the Dauphiné too, so that he can be in his best form of this season for the Tour. That's what he's hopefully headed for. Indeed, he immediately achieved some nice results in the Tour of Algarve, although I have to say that the level there was relatively a bit lower. Sure, we were very happy with his performance, because you never know how someone's first race after such an injury will go."

According to De Jongh, things improved race after race for the now 29-year-old Brit, who thus continued to make progress. "In the Tour of Romandy, he then achieved his first WorldTour top-ten (ninth, ed.) in a long time. Then there was a period of easing off, followed by an altitude training camp. And now we're here, so we can't complain. There were no setbacks. The goal here in the Dauphiné is once again to take another step in the right direction. We also just know that with the injury he had, it's not realistic to aim very high in a race like the Tour. With his specific injury, most people are not back to their previous level until after a year and a half. That's something to keep in mind. With Tao, we're not yet a year and a half in, so we keep that in mind when determining ambitions."

"But well, statistics don't tell us everything!" De Jongh continued, sounding a bit more ambitious. "He can always surprise. For him, it's just important to reach his best possible level. That's how he sees it too, although he will also put a lot of pressure on himself. But they all do, haha! It's up to us as team management to temper that a bit. We're just very happy with where he currently stands."

With an eye on the Tour, there's also Pedersen, who must deliver success in the sprint and hilly stages (which went very well in the Dauphiné opening stage). "With Mads, we will indeed focus on the sprint and hill stages. Going to altitude is something he has never really done before, but I think he has proven that he's not a rider who necessarily needs it. He's just trained a lot in Monaco and prepared himself well for the important goals that are coming up. He's in good shape."

Lidl-Trek won the points jersey with Jonathan Milan in the Giro. However, that does not directly make the green jersey a goal in itself for the American team. "The green jersey in the Tour is of lesser priority. We mainly want to focus on stage wins," said De Jongh. "If you win stages, the points jersey will automatically follow. If it goes well, it goes well. But we're not making it a goal in itself beforehand. We'll see how things go in the Tour."

While the Tour selection may well be close to final (many Dauphiné participants are also heading to La Grande Boucle), the Lidl-Trek octet is not yet definitively set. "In the Dauphiné, we are indeed bringing the core of the Tour team. And this race is very important, as it's of course the dress rehearsal for the Tour. In terms of staff members, we have a lot of people here who will also do the Tour. In that sense, it's also important. After the Dauphiné, we'll go to altitude again, this time in Andorra. At least four men from the Tour team live there, so that's convenient. For them, it's a home game."

"Actually, seven of the eight spots are already filled," concluded De Jongh. "Only the last man is still a bit of a question mark. That's always a tough choice. The Tour of Switzerland will play an important role in that, just like the Dauphiné, as well as the Tour of Belgium. In Belgium, it's mainly Tim Declercq we're keeping an eye on. He's also possibly in our Tour team, in Switzerland it's all about Sam Oomen, Patrick Konrad and Bauke Mollema. Those guys are all still fighting for a spot in the selection." To say that De Jongh is keeping busy is an understatement. He has already scouted quite a few stages, including the gravel stage (twice), according to the affable DS. "That could really be a surprising stage."