Lidl-Trek continues to build its future and announces that Jakob Söderqvist will join its WorldTour team with a two-year contract starting from January 1st, 2026.

Söderqvist, 21 years old, has repeatedly demonstrated his time trial capabilities since joining the development structure of the American team, Lidl-Trek Future Racing. In 2024, he finished 2nd at the Tour de la Provence TT, behind teammate Mads Pedersen, then secured additional time trial successes at the Giro Next Gen and Swedish championships, before collecting two silver medals at the under-23 World and European Championships. His success was not limited to time trials, as he added road victories at the Tour de Bretagne and Fleche du Sud to his palmares. Throughout the year, Söderqvist achieved seven victories: four time trials, two road stages, and one general classification.

Although it was clear that the Swede had the talent to move to the WorldTour, Lidl-Trek's performance team believed Söderqvist would benefit from an additional year in the development squad to gain more experience in race finales. In 2025, Jakob raced a combination of events with the development team alongside several lower-level elite races, a plan designed to help him start on the right foot in 2026 when he will join the WorldTour team full-time.

Söderqvist has repeatedly shown there is much more to him than just time trial ability. In the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, he impressed alongside Jonathan Milan, fitting perfectly into a high-level sprint train. A couple of months later, he was crucial in Edward Theuns' exciting victory at the Bredene-Koksijde Classic, almost single-handedly keeping the chasing group at bay.

Last Sunday at the hell of the north, Söderqvist more than proved his classics credentials by dominating the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs together with teammate Albert Withen Philipsen. Although the victory was awarded to the Dane, the pair crossed the finish line arm in arm, celebrating their joint result with an iconic image that shows how bright Lidl-Trek's future is.

Speaking about his journey to joining the WorldTour with Lidl-Trek, Jakob Söderqvist stated: "Joining the WorldTour team marks the beginning of a new chapter in my sporting career and a chapter where possibilities are endless. All these things are pieces I used to dream of having. I realized I wanted to see how good I could become, so this chapter is about having these opportunities and trying to make the most of them and see how far we can go. The confirmation that I would join the WorldTour team wasn't sudden, but more of a preparation as last year I was achieving good results and feeling growth. I knew things were going well, but I was also so engaged with everything at that point that I didn't think about it much. I just knew I was coming, but then sitting down and realizing my position in this sport is quite unreal, and it's also unreal how quickly I've progressed from just a year or two ago when I didn't know if making it professional was possible. Now we're here, and it's a great relief in a way, but also something that excites me to really see how I can work moving forward in my discipline with a top-level team, and it's just, yes, a really exciting prospect."

He added: "I chose to become a professional with Lidl-Trek because I want to have influence and play an active role in deciding what I'm doing, not just following a copy/paste plan that some teams give you. Lidl-Trek has really shown that we're on the same wavelength with this, and I feel truly at home. It's so personal, like the relationships within the team. I already have some very, very good close friends whom I invite to my home and we share ideas. We take care of each other and share in each other's success, which you don't find at the same level in other teams."

"Taking this extra year with the development team was a good choice. It's really just about dividing the step forward into two parts, getting more support towards the WorldTour level, but without expectations. All the pressure and professionalism to live up to and everything else, you can, as comfortably. I feel that with the two steps, there are fewer risks and fewer things that could be difficult to understand when you take the step forward. My development this year was beyond what I would have expected, and perhaps this will repeat, perhaps it's just a small additional step, but certainly now I'm in a good position and I feel that when opportunities arrive, I'll have the tools to exploit them."

Sebastian Andersen, Lidl-Trek Future Racing DS, stated: "I think Jakob has enormous potential. He's relatively new to the cycling world and is somewhat a raw diamond in this sport. He possesses a great engine and has incredible power, which we saw throughout last year. First in Provence, where he almost beat a rider like Mads in the prologue. But he's not doing this just once, he's done it multiple times. Again at Tour de Bretagne, the way he won was on a super tough day with rain and hard terrain, and he really pushed everyone in the group to the limit. Then he performed again at Giro Next Gen, winning the Prologue. He was quite confident about it because he had focused well on it. And then the results at the Swedish National Championships, Europeans, and Worlds are a clear sign of his great potential. This year Jakob took an intermediate step, where he also raced a bit with the WorldTour team, learning even more. Having a transition year is fantastic: just because you've had a good season doesn't mean you know everything. And for Jakob to have confidence in us, believing this is a good plan for him, is a sign of a good way of working together."