The old TT love is truly back for Max Walscheid: Already in his second race on the Trek Speed Concept the 32-year-old German impressed and finished third on stage 1 of Tirreno-Adriatico
After a short stint in the hot seat in an even hotter tent behind the finish line of Lido di Camaiore, Walscheid was only beaten by Filippo Ganna and Thymen Arensman over the panflat 11.5 kilometres.
Walscheid beat Magnus Sheffield by half a second to fourth place, with Jonathan Milan three seconds behind Walscheid in fifth to secure another top result for Lidl-Trek on the opening day of the race of the two seas.
“I think it was a good performance. To be honest I did not feel perfect, but I could definitely push quite solid power and I’m also happy about the time. We’ll see what it’s worth in the end”, he said when leaving the hot seat with roughly 25 riders still to come. It was worth a lot.
The 2-metre-giant from Heidelberg proved how much power he can push with the pedals and the potential which still sits within him, when he’s set-up ideally for the fight against the clock. That is what Walscheid praised already a day before he went on the road to race to third place at the Tyrrhenian coast.
If now I put 500 Watts on the pedal, it all comes together
“I am pretty satisfied with my TT setup and I started the season knowing that now it’s depending on how many watts I put on the pedals”, he said on the eve of the race and elaborated on how happy he is with the attention the team puts into his time trial efforts.
“I have given my input, but did not have to find special solutions by myself – different than how it was in previous years of my career . I think when you look at my TT results you can see, in which years the focus on that topic was good and in which it was less so.”
Max Walscheid during his first time trial with Lidl - Trek at the UAE Tour - Photo: Tim De Waele/Getty Images
Walscheid had raced to 5th place at the ITT European Championships in 2021 and followed up with 11th ten days later at the World Championships in Bruges, where he also won the gold medal with the German team in the relay. But, after that his results on the TT bike went missing, before he regained his TT momentum back in 2024 and 2025. “Looking back I have to say that I lost my motivation for time trialing completely in between for a period.”
Walscheid now feels it really helps again to put the effort in – and that culminated in a podium finish at Tirreno-Adriatico’s opening time trial. “I have already found a setup with the team with two tests on the track and one in the wind tunnel. So I can say the support I experience here is superb and the team provides everything you need to ride your bike fast. If now I put 500 Watts on the display, then it all comes together,” he said before racing to third place in Lido di Camaiore.
The strategy was pretty much all-out from the beginning. Of course you need to hold back a little bit, because 11.5 kilometres is still quite long to start full. But nevertheless I had nothing to lose. I started quite hard, even though I knew the headwind part is not really in my favour. But on the way back I was going quite well and except the bumpy asphalt it was a nice ride.
Interestingly Walscheid did not even feel he has reached top shape yet. “I think there are still some percentages of space in my build-up – and that’s normal and right so, because of course I want to be good here, but at the same time the classics season until Roubaix is still very long”, he said.
“I have a very intense period ahead of me with Tirreno, Nokere, Denain and Koksijde. That is very hard, but I need that to build up my shape. So I hope this can bring me in perfect condition towards the classics.”
The classics, that’s the second love of Walscheid next to time trialing. And at Lidl-Trek he also could deepen that relationship further, as he has been looking forward to racing together with Mads Pedersen all winter already.
“If you have one of three or maybe five riders in the world, who could win these big classics as your teammate then this is of course an incredible motivation,” he said.
“I collected a lot of experience at these races over the years and am very keen to contribute that.”
And then there is love number three for Walscheid as well: bunch sprints. Before being known as a good time trialist, he was a hopeful sprinter already himself. In 2018 he won the Münsterland Giro ahead of strong competition like John Degenkolb and André Greipel, led out by then and now teammate Edward Theuns.
Eight years later Walscheid still is fast, but over the years he developed into the role of a very strong leadout man. And similar to the situation with Pedersen, he also wants to excel in that role for Milan.
“If you bring him to the finale properly and ideally also lead him out until he starts his sprint, he wins. That is something I have not experienced in that way in my career, yet. I have worked with really strong riders, for sure. But he really has that especially high top class,” Walscheid praised his new Italian teammate, with whom he already celebrated three stage wins at the UAE Tour.
Max Walscheid, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhiher, Patrick Konrad, Simone Consonni and Edward Theuns after Jonathan Milan's victory on stage 4 of the UAE Tour - Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images
“Of course you want to start strong together straight away, but on the other hand a trusted relationship also needs time. I think, UAE Tour was a good kick start”, Walscheid explained, but also knows there is always work to do to improve the sprint train.
“To know it will definitely be worth it to give your all, motivates a lot. And I think everybody in the team and in the sprint train is motivated, not to be the weakest link in the chain.”
