Giro analysts tear Lidl-Trek apart: ‘It was like Kuss snatched a lollipop from two children’

Lidl-Trek came in for plenty of criticism from several analysts in podcasts after the nineteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. The team finished second on the day with Derek Gee-West and also saw Giulio Ciccone take third and secure the blue mountains jersey. According to Thijs Zonneveld and Roxane Knetemann, though, much more was there for the taking.

In the Dutch podcast In De Waaier, Zonneveld described Lidl-Trek as “loose sand” throughout the entire Giro. “We had the stage on day five, where Ciccone was in pink and Gee-West did not come to the front to ride, which meant they gave away the pink jersey again. We had stages where Jonathan Milan was left on his own and Ciccone attacked every day and never saved anything anywhere. They just do whatever, even now.”

Gee-West and Ciccone were in stage 19 together with teammate Matteo Sobrero, and although time gains for Gee-West and the hunt for mountain points for Ciccone seemed able to go hand in hand for a long time, it all went wrong in the finale. Ciccone was provoked by a cunning Einer Rubio of Movistar and rode away alone after the penultimate climb.

Gee-West had to sit up and gained far less time than expected on the other GC men. “Ciccone and Gee-West ride fantastically in terms of level and they have one of the best sprinters in the world in Milan, but they simply do not win anything. I was watching today with my toes curling under me, CHOOSE FOR GOD’S SAKE!”

“They rode the whole day for Gee-West’s GC, but because Ciccone and Rubio fell out, they still went for the stage win,” Zonneveld said, seeing a fantastic situation for Lidl-Trek go up in smoke. “That is not tactics, is it? It is just doing things and then cracking. You really have to be very strong and then maybe you get away with it.”

“It is very impressive that Ciccone still finishes third, but he and Gee-West are now two and three. And Gee-West did not regain enough time, so he only moved ahead of Eulalio. So what have you gained from it? Ciccone could have ridden on the front after the penultimate climb, and then Gee-West would now have been around Jai Hindley’s third place and it would still be exciting.”

“Now it felt a bit as if Sepp Kuss had snatched a lollipop from two children. You cannot do everything at once. Sometimes you have to do something for each other. Last year Ciccone rode on the front for Mads Pedersen, and he got that back. Now everyone just does whatever. With such an expensive team and such good riders, Lidl-Trek are not making much of it.”

Knetemann labelled Lidl-Trek “a mess” in the podcast In Het Wiel after stage 19. And she broadened that beyond just this one stage. “This is the common thread at Lidl-Trek. They have a big budget, try to sign the riders for it, but there is a lot going on in the structure. And that comes back in the riders too.”

So the finale with Ciccone and Gee-West was only one outcome of a bigger problem. “It is hugely selfish, but this behaviour from Ciccone obviously comes from somewhere. I am not saying that because Gee-West did not help him in his pink jersey. I actually think everything was already ruined by then. It was not right, and that is where team structure is very important.”

A lack of leadership, which Knetemann says is frustrating Ciccone. “He is not satisfied anyway. I think Lidl-Trek cannot get him to act in the team’s interests. That is down to the structure around the riders. There is nobody who can get Ciccone down to earth and say: we have a plan and you have to fit into it. They are not managing that. I do not think they had a cosy evening.”