Gaia Realini will leave Lidl-Trek at the end of the 2026 season after the Italian climber and the team agreed to end their partnership one year before her contract was due to expire.
Lidl-Trek confirmed the decision in an announcement on Sunday, describing the split as mutual following discussions between the two sides. No destination for Realini in 2027 has yet been announced.
The timing is notable because Realini had extended with Lidl-Trek through the end of 2027 in February 2024, only a year after a breakthrough first season with the team. Her departure will therefore close a four-year spell that included a Grand Tour stage win, two Grand Tour podiums and some of the strongest climbing performances of her career.
Realini’s 2023 breakthrough established her among the best climbers
Realini joined Lidl-Trek for 2023 after two seasons with Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria and made an immediate impact. She finished second overall at the UAE Tour Women before winning Trofeo Oro in Euro, then took third at La Flèche Wallonne.
Her biggest breakthrough came at La Vuelta Femenina. Realini won stage six and finished third overall, before adding another third place at the Giro d’Italia Donne later that summer along with the best young rider classification.
Those results established her as one of the strongest pure climbers in the women’s peloton and led Lidl-Trek to extend her contract through 2027. In 2024 she continued that progression with fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes, seventh at the Giro d’Italia Women and third at the Tour de Romandie Féminin.
Injury and illness disrupted the following two seasons
Realini’s momentum was interrupted at the beginning of 2025 when she fractured her right elbow in a training crash. ProCyclingUK covered the setback at the time in our report on Realini’s elbow fracture.
The injury proved more disruptive than first expected, and Realini later explained that repeated illness prevented her from rebuilding consistent form during the season. She missed the level she had reached in 2023 and 2024 and entered 2026 looking to re-establish herself in the major stage races.
This season has shown some signs of improvement without a return to her previous Grand Tour results. Realini raced La Vuelta Femenina and has remained active through the late-season Italian programme, including Giro dell’Emilia Donne and the upcoming Tre Valli Varesine Women.
Lidl-Trek’s 2027 roster is changing around its GC group
Realini’s exit also comes during a significant reshaping of Lidl-Trek’s women’s roster. The team have already confirmed Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney as a major general classification signing for 2027, alongside Ally Wollaston and Arlenis Sierra, while Shirin van Anrooij is leaving for Canyon SRAM.
That does not make Realini’s departure a simple consequence of one incoming rider, but it does change the team’s climbing hierarchy for next season. Niewiadoma-Phinney, Niamh Fisher-Black and the remaining stage-race group give Lidl-Trek several options for Grand Tours, while Realini will now look for a new environment after four seasons with the team.
For Realini, still only 25, the next move will be important. Her peak results have already shown that she can contend for Grand Tour podiums when healthy, but the last two seasons have been shaped by interrupted preparation and a struggle to return to that level consistently.
Her next team has not been announced. Once confirmed, the move will be added to ProCyclingUK’s women’s cycling transfers hub.
