"Juan seems like a guy who knows how to get along with others": Ayuso's new teammate praises the Spanish star

2026 will be Jacopo Mosca's eighth season with Lidl-Trek, a team in which he has developed most of his professional career. The 32-year-old has become a key domestique, working for different leaders, whether in Grand Tours, Classics or individual stages.

As an elite domestique whose work goes often unnoticed, he is almost as valuable as a team leader. Asked in a recent interview how much the role and environment have changed, Mosca points first to Lidl-Trek’s evolution. "The team is growing year by year in an exponential way. I was talking about it just the other day at breakfast with some teammates: even compared to three years ago, when we were already a big team, today it’s a completely different situation," Mosca said to bici.pro.

"I remember my first training camp with Lidl-Trek: we were more than 100 people and it already felt like an incredible number. Today we would be at least double that. It’s incredible to see new faces and at the same time notice how every department keeps expanding and how we continue to take steps forward."

That growth, he explained, comes despite already operating at a very high level when he arrived to the team. “We were already starting from a really high level, so it’s not even easy to improve when you’re close to the limit. But the team is managing to do it, and doing it well. Here the work is organised by sectors and everyone has dedicated staff. That’s nice, because it gives you more and more motivation.”

On a personal level, Mosca believes he has been substantially improving. The problem is that everyone else has been doing the same, sometimes faster than him. “The problem is that the others are improving as well. Honestly, I wouldn’t know how to measure it in numbers: maybe in training you do values you didn’t do years ago, or compared to my first year as a professional today I do numbers that would have been unthinkable."

"With the values from ten years ago, today you wouldn’t even start a race. Then you also have to consider what numbers we’re talking about, because for a rider with my characteristics, a domestique, short-duration numbers have always been quite similar. And to be honest, I don’t even pay that much attention to them.”

One of the main stories of the off-season was Juan Ayuso's transfer to Lidl-Trek. “To be honest, I haven’t ridden much with him, but from the way he moves you can see that he has integrated well. We’re such a good group that it’s hard not to integrate. Juan seems like a guy who knows how to get along with others: I had already seen him a few months ago in Germany, during the pre-camp. Then we’ll see when the pressure comes, when we’re fully into racing. That’s when we’ll all know more. I don’t like listening too much to what others say: I want to see what he does here.”

Looking ahead to his programme, Mosca confirmed a couple of races he will be riding. “I’ll go to Australia in a few days, then the rest is still quite open. But I’m pretty sure I’ll do Milano-Sanremo, because I have a special relationship with that race. I hope to be there, but above all I think I’ll be there and I think I’ll be strong. The Classicissima is a race I like, I have a good feeling with it. Maybe I’ll have to spend 250 kilometres on the front pulling… and it wouldn’t even be the first time.”

Finally, Mosca reflected on how the domestique’s job has evolved, particularly in the post-Covid era. "A lot. Before, you would pull for 150–200 kilometres and then the race would start and I would move aside. Today the same race explodes at 100 kilometres from the finish. It seems like a domestique ‘only’ works for about a hundred kilometres, but those are a hundred kilometres where you have to position or pull."

"Then there’s a small climb, the fight starts and you can’t let go. You have to be ready, you always have to stay close to the race. And here we go back to what we said before: improvement, being present regardless of the numbers. Today a domestique has to be much more complete than in the past," he concluded.