Filippo Ganna will join Lidl-Trek for the 2027 season on a three-year contract running through the end of 2029, bringing his eight-season spell with the Netcompany INEOS organisation to a close. Lidl-Trek confirmed the transfer on Tuesday, adding one of the peloton’s leading time triallists and most powerful Classics riders to an already deep men’s squad.
The 30-year-old Italian arrives with a record that stretches well beyond racing against the clock. He is a two-time elite world time trial champion, the current UCI Hour Record holder and an Olympic team pursuit champion, while his road palmarès includes eight Giro d’Italia stage wins, two Vuelta a España stages and five victories at Tirreno-Adriatico.
His 2026 season also underlined how much broader his range has become. Ganna won Dwars door Vlaanderen after a dramatic finale, adding a major cobbled Classic to a record that already includes two podium finishes at Milan-San Remo. He also remained among the very best time trial riders in the world, finishing on the podium at the 2026 World Championships time trial in Montréal.
Ganna targets Classics and Grand Tours
Ganna made clear that the move is about more than a change of colours. He said he was “super proud to join” Lidl-Trek and was already looking towards the team’s first training camp, with the Classics singled out as a major objective. He also expects Grand Tours to remain an important part of his programme, combining work for the team’s leaders with opportunities of his own.
That balance should suit Lidl-Trek. Ganna can be used as a protected rider in long, attritional one-day races, as a specialist for individual time trials and as one of the strongest engines available for controlling stages or positioning a leader. His ability to win independently was clear again at the Giro this year, where he won the stage 10 time trial in Massa.
He will also arrive with established relationships inside the team. Ganna has spent years racing alongside Jonathan Milan and Simone Consonni with the Italian national track programme, while he highlighted Mads Pedersen as a rider he is keen to work with. That familiarity should make the transition less disruptive than many high-profile transfers.
Another major weapon for Lidl-Trek
The signing gives Lidl-Trek another rider capable of shaping races before the final selection as well as finishing them off himself. Pedersen remains central to the team’s Classics plans, but Ganna creates a different route to victory. On courses where repeated attacks, long solo efforts or a high-speed chase matter more than a reduced sprint, the Italian gives the team another option rather than simply another leader competing for the same role.
His time trial ability also has obvious value across stage races. Ganna has repeatedly turned Grand Tour time trials into stage-win opportunities, while his size and sustained power make him useful on flat and rolling days where teams need to protect a GC rider or organise a chase. Lidl-Trek CEO Andy Schleck described Ganna as a rider whose range across time trials, Classics and Grand Tours was central to the team’s plans for the coming seasons.
For Ganna, the switch marks the first major team change of his prime years. He joined the Ineos structure in 2019 and developed there from an elite track and time trial specialist into a rider capable of influencing some of the biggest road races on the calendar. From 2027, Lidl-Trek will be the team attempting to turn that range into an even broader set of wins.
