{"id":1180196,"date":"2026-09-01T05:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180196\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:20:26","slug":"skjelmose-and-carapaz-to-leave-lidl-trek-and-ef-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180196\/","title":{"rendered":"Skjelmose and Carapaz to leave Lidl-Trek and EF Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a is wide open following Tadej Pogacar\u2019s withdrawal<\/a>. The Slovenian crashed out, suddenly opening the door for several contenders for the red jersey. Riders like Mattias Skjelmose<\/a> (Lidl-Trek) and Richard Carapaz<\/a> (EF Education-EasyPost) have a shot at the podium or even more, but they might just be riding for a different team next year.After a week of racing, Carapaz is in fifth place, 3.26 minutes behind red jersey wearer Enric Mas, while Skjelmose trails the Ecuadorian by just under half a minute. With two weeks to go, a lot can still change in the general classification<\/a>, so these riders will be eager to move up the standings.But according to Het Laatste Nieuws<\/a>, the transfer market is wide open during the Vuelta. Rumors about Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d have been circulating for a while: the Slovenian could leave Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe due to competition from riders such as Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Jai Hindley, and Giulio Pellizzari. But Skjelmose and Carapaz are also reportedly eyeing a possible transfer.Carapaz was already linked to a departure from EF Education-EasyPost<\/a> last year, but the rumors have resurfaced this year. Reportedly, three different teams are interested in the climber\u2019s services; he won two Tour stages and the polka-dot jersey this year. The Pro-Continental team Pinarello-Q36.5 is said to be looking to compete with NSN and Netcompany INEOS, the team where Carapaz rode for three years between 2020 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"richard-carapaz\"\/Upcoming \u2018luxury problems\u2019 at Lidl-Trek\u2014is Skjelmose out?Skjelmose won the Amstel Gold Race just last year and finished sixth in this year\u2019s Tour de France, but due to growing competition at Lidl-Trek<\/a>, the Dane might leave the team. As for general classification riders, Juan Ayuso and Derek Gee-West were signed this year, even though Skjelmose was the best of the three in the Tour. But Lidl-Trek is reportedly looking for even more climbers.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, it was reported that Felix Gall might leave Decathlon CMA CGM. Lidl-Trek is said to be his destination. With the Austrian\u2014who finished second in this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia and is in contention for a podium finish in the Vuelta\u2014Skjelmose is reportedly on his way out, according to HLN. In addition, Lidl-Trek is facing yet another \u201cluxury problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, Gregor M\u00fchlberger is set to join the team with Gall, and Jordi Meeus is also expected to make the move from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. In addition, Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Georg Zimmermann (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9) are also expected to join, while Jordan Jegat has already been officially signed from TotalEnergies. This would mean that some riders would have to leave: the team currently has 32 riders on the roster for the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

That exceeds the maximum allowed number of thirty riders. That, combined with the increasing competition within the team, would mean that Skjelmose would have begun weighing his options. It is not known which teams might be interested in the Danish rider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a is wide open following Tadej Pogacar\u2019s withdrawal. The Slovenian crashed out, suddenly opening the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1180197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,34348,20358,208554,187444,79,16,15,315085],"class_list":["post-1180196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-ef-education-easypost","tag-lidl-trek","tag-mattias-skjelmose","tag-richard-carapaz","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vuelta-a-espana-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117194105054828637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}