Team Lidl – Trek brought the Lidl Deutschland Tour to a satisfying conclusion following team captain Giulio Ciccone’s illness-related withdrawal – with Tim Torn Teutenberg finishing third on the final stage in Heilbronn and Mathias Vacek taking fifth place overall.
With a genuine home race just a few kilometres from Lidl’s headquarters, the Lidl Deutschland Tour came to an end for Lidl – Trek. And what an ending it was!
In front of huge crowds of fans and an breathtaking atmosphere, Tim Torn Teutenberg was unable to secure the stage victory the team had been hoping for, but the 24-year-old powered to a strong third place in a bunch sprint out of a reduced peloton. Teutenberg only got beaten by Paul Magnier and Danny van Poppel.
At the same time, Mathias Vacek moved up from sixth to fifth place in the overall classification, as he picked up one second in the bonus sprint eight kilometres before the finish of the 156-kilometre stage.
With that, Team Lidl – Trek brought a difficult weekend to a satisfying conclusion.
After team captain Giulio Ciccone fell ill during the night from Friday to Saturday and, weakened by illness, had to relinquish his third place overall on Stage 3, the Italian was unable to start the final stage on Sunday morning.
Nevertheless, the team gave it everything one more time in an attempt to get Vacek onto the podium. For a brief moment, it even looked as though the Czech champion might achieve this on the final climb of the day up to Jägerhaus, when he managed to break away from the field together with overall winner Isaac Del Toro and runner-up Louis Barré.
However, over the final twelve kilometres, Vacek and Barré were caught again by overall third-place finisher Marc Hirschi and his teammates – and in the very last moment also Del Toro was reiled in to make it a bunch sprint finish. There Teutenberg tried his luck for Lidl – Trek and finished in third – his best result of the season.
Team Lidl - Trek racing on the final stage at Lidl Deutschland Tour | Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images
Earlier in the week, Ciccone had finished third on Stage 1 in Schwäbisch Hall, while Max Walscheid sprinted to fourth place the following day in Offenbach an der Queich. This was followed on the final day by another third-place finish, courtesy of Teutenberg, as well as Vacek’s fifth place overall – all made possible by the relentless work of their teammates Matteo Sobrero and Carlos Verona.
In Tim’s words:
Matteo Sobrero was supposed to follow the attacks in the finale, and that’s what he did. I waited, and then at some point the Quick-Step guys came through. I tried to latch onto them. Unfortunately, I lost the wheel again and was then about two positions behind just before the sprint. That meant I had to start my sprint a little earlier because I knew that once we came around the corner, I would already have to go. But Magnier is simply hard to beat this year as well.
