Giro standout Felix Gall sparks Lidl-Trek interest

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the German team is interested in signing the 28-year-old climber, whose contract with Decathlon CMA CGM expires at the end of the season. The report comes from Ciro Scognamiglio, one of the Italian newspaper’s best connected cycling journalists.

For Lidl-Trek, the interest is easy to understand. Gall is second overall at the Giro, 4 minutes and 3 seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike). Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) is third at 4 minutes and 27 seconds, with Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) completing the top five.

Gall has not climbed there quietly. In all four major mountain stages, he was the rider closest to Vingegaard, finishing second when the race split apart and others lost contact. Without a stage win, he has still become one of the clearest revelations of this Giro.

Gall is in his fifth season with Decathlon CMA CGM, having turned professional with Team Sunweb in 2020.

The Austrian has built his reputation on consistency in stage races, and his recent results show exactly why. He finished fifth at the Tour of the Alps in 2025, fourth at the Tour de Suisse, fifth at the Tour de France, eighth at the Vuelta a España, fifth at the UAE Tour in 2026 and sixth at the Volta a Catalunya.

Before the Giro, however, Gall made it clear that consistency alone was no longer enough.

“It’s true, last season was very good, but I think there’s still room for improvement,” Gall told RCS Sport. “With the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, things change a bit, and the goal is to try to finish on the podium in at least one of the two races. That’s the next step I’ve set for myself in my career, and I believe this could be the right year to achieve it.”

So far, he is backing up those words.

Gall’s possible departure from Decathlon CMA CGM cannot be separated from the rapid rise of Paul Seixas. The French prodigy has already shown enough potential to command major attention inside the team and is likely to become the central figure in its long-term plans. 

That may make a leadership role for Gall in the biggest races, especially the Tour de France, harder to secure in the years ahead. For a rider of his level, and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, that uncertainty makes rival projects, such as Lidl Trek’s, worth considering.

The German team had already strengthened its GC ambitions last winter by signing Juan Ayuso from UAE Team Emirates-XRG in a much discussed transfer. Later, Canadian rider Derek Gee-West also joined after a contract dispute with Israel-Premier Tech. 

In addition, the team can also count on 25-year-old Dane Mattias Skjelmose, who finished fifth at the Vuelta a España in 2024.

Unlike other teams targeting the general classification in Grand Tours, such as UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Visma | Lease a Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek usually also arrives with sprint ambitions. Built around names including Jonathan Milan and Mads Pedersen, the team now has a squad capable of competing on several fronts.

Last year, that approach delivered something unique: Lidl-Trek became the first team to win the points classification jersey in all three Grand Tours in the same season.