Ayuso briefly ill, Pedersen still experiencing wrist pain: A timely Tour de France update from Lidl-Trek

Lidl-Trek is heading into the Tour de France with high hopes, but during a media session with the team on Friday, some important details came to light. For example, team leaders Juan Ayuso and Mads Pedersen both experienced some setbacks during their preparations, each in their own way.

The Lidl-Trek squad for the Tour de France is brimming with talent. In addition to Ayuso and Pedersen, the German cycling team features Mathias Vacek, who is in top form, U.S. champion Quinn Simmons, Toms Skujins, and Mattias Skjelmose—all dangerous men when the road goes up. And Ayuso also has Derek Gee-West and Carlos Verona at his disposal to support his general classification ambitions.

The young Spaniard from Lidl-Trek would love to finish on the podium in Paris, but had to admit on Friday that his preparation for the Tour de France didn’t go 100 percent as planned. In addition to his crash in Paris-Nice and stomach problems in the Basque Country, Ayuso told Wielerflits that he was sick for a few days after the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

Ayuso had just made a strong impression in the eight-day stage race (TARA), where an incredible number of riders fell ill. He finished third in the overall standings. However, he had already been experiencing some early symptoms during the final weekend, and after the race, he had to stay off the bike for four days due to a virus. Ayuso described his recovery as “difficult,” but in the last two weeks, he started to feel better again.

The bumps in the road are raising some questions for the Lidl-Trek team leader, who will be giving it his all in the Tour de France, hoping to be at his best in the Alps during the third week. His preparation went as well as it possibly could, and the fact that he couldn’t ride for four days after the Auvergne stage wasn’t the end of the world either. He would have taken that rest anyway after the race.

Pedersen will be aiming for stage wins and the points classification. But he did not have a flawless preparation for the 2026 Tour de France. Speaking to Feltet on Friday, he said that the wrist he broke during the Tour of Valencia in February had been acting up again after the classics. “My wrist was hurting a bit; there’s no need to beat around the bush about that.”

Pedersen was in a race against the clock to even make it to the starting line of the classics after Valencia, and he made his comeback as early as March at Milan-Sanremo. He had a remarkably strong spring, finishing fourth in Sanremo, fifth in the Tour of Flanders, and seventh in Paris-Roubaix.

After all those cobblestones, my body was definitely crying out for a rest. “It was tough riding over the cobblestones. It took more out of my wrist than we thought. It took a while before I was fully recovered,” said Pedersen, who returned to competition in May at the Boucles de la Mayenne. He finished fourth overall there.

Since his return, everything seems to be going well for Pedersen, although he chose to skip the Baloise Belgium Tour in June and train on his own to avoid another fall on the Flemish cobblestones. “I had the choice between racing in Belgium or training, and I felt more comfortable with training. My coach and doctor also said that was the best option.”

As a result, Pedersen competed only in the Danish Road Championships in June, where he finished seventh in the time trial and fifth in the road race.