We're prepared for three tough weeks of racing in Spain
The final Grand Tour of the season is here, and Lidl-Trek arrives at La Vuelta a España 2026 with a versatile eight-rider squad ready to take on one of the toughest editions in recent years.
The 81st Vuelta gets underway on August 22 with a short individual time trial in Monaco, before the race heads through France and Andorra and into Spain. Across 21 stages and 3,275 kilometres, the peloton will face a route packed with climbing, including seven summit finishes, a 32-kilometre individual time trial and more than 58,000 metres of elevation gain. The decisive moments are likely to come in the mountains, with the final week featuring tough finishes at La Pandera, Peñas Blancas and the new summit finish at Collado del Alguacil. The race concludes in Granada on September 13.
Photo: Chris Auld
Mattias Skjelmose will lead Lidl-Trek’s general classification ambitions and the Dane arrives in Spain after a strong Tour de France, where he finished sixth overall. The Vuelta route offers plenty of opportunities for Skjelmose to put his climbing, time-trialling and tactical strengths to work.
Alongside Skjelmose, Mads Pedersen will be a riders to watch on the punchier stages, where his explosiveness and finishing speed can make the difference. He is fresh off winning the green jersey and a stage at the Tour and will be hoping to produce a similar performance in the final Grand Tour of the year.
Photo: Chris Auld
Thibau Nys adds another winning threat, with his ability to combine sprinting strength and resilience opening up opportunities across the varied route.
Although his build-up to the race has been difficult, Nys explains he feels confident ahead of the Vuelta:
It’s clear that the season is far from what I had hoped for after my knee injury, surgery and the whole recovery from that. I was looking forward to racing a lot and we started off well in Suisse and the Nationals, then having a good preparation in Majorca to be in top shape at the Vuelta and also San Sebastián and Burgos, both of which I looked forward to and had made a goal. The last week of my training camp in Majorca I got some symptoms of illness and it looked a bit like I might not be able to make the start line of the Vuelta, but in the end I turned around quickly.
I have the feeling I am in the shape I wanted to be and I can’t expect more than that after what I have been through. Actually, the last training rides I did really surprised me with my good shape. I hope I can show that in the Vuelta, I think we have a really nice team and some clear goals. I am looking forward to it and I hope to turn around the bad luck of this year and finish it off nicely.
Julien Bernard, Lennard Kämna, Patrick Konrad, Jacopo Mosca and Mathias Norsgaard complete a team packed with experience and versatility, ready to support the team’s GC ambitions while taking their own opportunities when the race opens up.
Sports director Maxime Monfort explained the team line-up:
We start with eight motivated guys. Skjelly is the GC leader. It's his second Grand Tour, but he's really feeling great, and he's going for GC. We can dream big, but, of course, he doesn't know how he's going to react in the third week. Everything is going well for the moment.
Then we have Mads who is also riding his second Grand Tour. He will not specifically chase green and wants to help the team as well as targeting stage wins – it is great to have him in this state. Thibau hasn’t had the perfect preparation because he was sick but we believe he can be good and we are happy to have him. He can be a game-changer in stage hunting and can help the team in general. We also have Julien who is a great helper with a lot of experience, the same with Konrad and Kämna who are really important in the mountains. Jacopo Mosca was impressive in Poland and is always committed, and so is Norsgaard who will do a job protecting Skjelly and Mads.
It will be a hot Vuelta as always and a difficult race with a lot of climbing from day three. There are a lot of chances for breakaways and it will be hard right until the crazy final stage in Granada.
Photo: Chris Auld
Three weeks of demanding racing await, with opportunities spread across almost every type of terrain. Lidl-Trek heads into La Vuelta with clear ambitions: to fight for the General Classification, hunt stage victories and make its mark on the final Grand Tour of the season.
