In Mads Pedersen, Mathias Vacek has the perfect role model 🇩🇰 🇨🇿
Interview with Vacek and everything we know about Lidl-Trek's ins and outs for 2026
Hello from Lecce,
Stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia just finished, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
We’ll share two or three stories today, depending on how the drive to our hotel goes, but to begin with, we have an interview with Lidl-Trek’s Mathias Vacek.
Additionally, we’ve reviewed the entire Lidl-Trek roster and identified who will be leaving and who will be staying at the end of the season. Approximately half of the men’s team is out of contract this year, but we’ve learned that several contract extensions are likely.
We’ll also have an extensive feature on Team Picnic PostNL after their stunning win today. The working title for that is ‘Take that Keyboard Warriors’, which is loosely based on a quote from one of their riders. He looked right through my soul as he said it…
And there’s an exclusive with Luke Plapp on his Giro d’Italia.
Founding members of the Substack already have the audio file of the interview with Mathias Vacek in their WhatsApp group, along with an interview with Marc Reef from Visma-Lease a Bike, in which we discuss Simon Yates, the latest on Wout van Aert, and whether transfer news ever distracts riders on the team. That story will be out tomorrow. Like I said, there’s a lot!
To coincide with the Giro d’Italia, I’ve set up a ✨ special 20% sale ✨ on annual subscriptions. Just click on the link below to sign up. For roughly £1 a week, you get all the stories on my Substack, including all the transfer exclusives.
Thanks
Daniel 🫶
Lidl-Trek may have missed out on the win on stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia in Lecce, but there’s no denying that they’ve been the team of the race so far, with Mads Pedersen winning two stages and enjoying his second spell in the maglia rosa. The American squad also heads up the points, white, and team classifications.
Central to that success has been 22-year-old Mathias Vacek. The Czech rider has been Pedersen’s last man during both of the Dane’s two stage wins, while in the individual time trial on stage 2, Vacek took a highly credible top-five. He’s currently leading the white jersey standings and has circled the gravel stage on stage 9 as a potential opportunity for himself.
“Everything has gone perfectly so far. We’re in Italy, and with the two jerseys that we have, we couldn’t be happier, but for sure, we want more with Giulio Ciccone in the next few weeks. Maybe some more stages,” Vacek told us earlier this morning when we caught up with him at the start.
Read more: Rider Cycling Transfers 2025/2026
Coming into the race, Vacek was handed several responsibilities - from protecting Ciccone on the flat to leading out Pedersen in the sprints. Ciccone and Søren Kragh Andersen were involved in a minor spill on the technical run-in to Lecce, but other than that, it’s been a near-perfect race for Vacek and his American squad.