Lidl-Trek's new teenage sensation has huge goals for the future - Sends Tadej Pogacar warning amid ambitious plans
Cycling
Héctor Álvarez is already setting his sights on the biggest stages in professional cycling. The European under-23 champion will begin his first WorldTour season with Lidl-Trek in 2027. He wants to learn from the best, support the team’s leaders and start carving out his own path to professional victories. Among his biggest ambitions are three of the calendar’s most prestigious Monuments: Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
The Spaniard spoke to MARCA at the Memorial Clavero after ending his season with victory at Paris-Tours U23. The result gave him the perfect start in his European champion’s jersey and capped a year of progress. Now he aims to carry some of that form into the professional ranks, while recognising that adapting to the new level will be essential.
Moving up to the WorldTour marks a major change for Álvarez, who joins a team packed with top-level riders and big ambitions. Although he makes no secret of his desire to win a professional race in 2027, he knows his first task will be to gain experience in the biggest races and support his key teammates.
“I’d like to win a professional race,” he says of his goals for next season. It is a clear ambition, but one that can sit alongside the caution required in his first season at the highest level. The Spaniard knows he must learn to handle different race situations and adapt to a much more demanding calendar.
“It’s a season in which I have to learn a lot: how to race the big events, like the Monuments, and how to help the leaders,” he explains. Álvarez will have experienced riders around him in the races that appeal most, including Filippo Ganna and Mads Pedersen, two riders whose level he hopes to approach.
Sharing a team with riders of that calibre offers him a chance to improve his race reading and his ability to compete in the toughest events. Álvarez is not joining Lidl-Trek under pressure to take on leadership duties straight away. Instead, he intends to seize every opportunity to develop within one of the peloton’s strongest teams.
Héctor Álvarez, Lidl-Trek’s rising star.
San Remo, Flanders and Roubaix among his biggest goals
The Classics are the races that most excite Héctor Álvarez. The European under-23 champion already has several events in mind for his first professional season, although his participation will depend on Lidl-Trek’s final plans.
“Opening Weekend, and I’d like to ride San Remo, Flanders and Roubaix,” he says when asked about his preferred 2027 schedule.
The list features some of the most iconic races in international cycling. Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix each present a different challenge, but all demand endurance, positioning, tactical nous and experience. Álvarez hopes to start building those qualities in his first WorldTour season.
He wants to gain experience in the races that could shape his future as soon as possible. However, he still needs to find out which schedule the team has planned for him and what opportunities he will have to race alongside its leading riders.
Grand Tours, by contrast, do not appear to be part of his immediate plans. “We discussed it at the training camp and, as things stand, I won’t ride any,” he explains. His professional debut will focus on continued development, getting used to the demands of the calendar and finding his place in a team with plenty of options for competing for results.
An ambitious Lidl-Trek ready to take on Pogacar
Álvarez’s first impressions of the team have been positive. The Spaniard highlights the working atmosphere and the quality of a squad facing high expectations in 2027. “There’s a very good atmosphere at work. We know it’s going to be a very important year, and the team has invested heavily in some very good riders,” he says.
The team’s collective goal is also clear. “We’ll come together like a family to become the best team in the world,” says the young rider, who believes the squad’s depth could become one of Lidl-Trek’s greatest strengths.
With so many riders capable of taking responsibility in different races, the team will have options and can approach the biggest events with ambition. Álvarez sees that wealth of talent as an advantage they must make the most of from the start of the season.
“We’re a very strong team and we have to make the most of that,” he says. Asked about the challenge of competing against Tadej Pogacar, the Spaniard does not shy away from the team’s ambitions: “We don’t have Pogacar, but with such a strong team we can start taking the fight to him.”
His words reflect the confidence within the team, although Álvarez knows his own contribution will have to be built step by step. Before thinking about major victories, he will need to learn from his teammates, fulfil his duties and seize the opportunities that arise throughout the season.
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A champion’s pride and the future of Spanish cycling
For Álvarez, the European under-23 champion’s jersey means much more than a result. It rewards the work he put in during a season in which he established himself among the leading riders in his age group. “You feel proud and satisfied with all the work you’ve done,” he explains.
He had few chances to wear the jersey before the season ended, but his victory at Paris-Tours Espoirs gave him a special way to sign off: celebrating a win in the colours of the continental champion.
His appearance at the Memorial Clavero also had a personal side. During the event in Madrid, he rode alongside children just starting out in cycling and caught up with teammates he rarely sees during the season. The occasion also let him remember the support he received from Dani and Spiuk during his junior years.
Meeting young riders prompted him to reflect on the progress of Spanish cycling and the results its new generation is achieving. “The consistency and work we’re putting in at grassroots level are bringing so many talented riders through, and that’s helping us achieve all these results,” he says.
Héctor Álvarez has already completed an important part of that journey, with a European title and an international under-23 victory to his name before stepping up to the WorldTour. A different challenge now awaits, with new responsibilities and the chance to test himself against the best riders in the world.
His first major goal is clear: to win a professional race. Along the way, he would like to experience the Monuments, including San Remo, Flanders and Roubaix, learn alongside Filippo Ganna and Mads Pedersen, and contribute to Lidl-Trek’s ambitions. The next step in his development begins in 2027, a season he approaches with ambition, but also with the understanding that he still has a great deal to learn.
Jorge BorregueroWriter
Jorge Borreguero is a journalist with a degree from the Complutense University of Madrid and has been a writer for Cyclinguptodate and Ciclismoaldia since early 2023. In this role, he has played a key part in the evolution of the website, particularly as a specialist covering Movistar Team. He regularly writes race reports, analytical pieces, and in-depth features about the team, and has conducted exclusive interviews and attended multiple team presentations, providing readers with firsthand insights into one of the leading professional cycling squads.
Throughout his career, Jorge has maintained a strong focus on sports journalism, gaining experience across a variety of disciplines, including basketball and football. However, his current work is almost entirely dedicated to cycling, contributing extensively to Ciclismoaldia and its sister website Cyclinguptodate. For these platforms, he combines thorough research with detailed reporting to deliver high-quality content, ranging from race previews and results to expert analysis of teams and riders.
Jorge’s reporting is marked by accuracy, depth, and a commitment to providing readers with reliable and authoritative information. His direct engagement with teams, athletes, and events ensures that his coverage reflects firsthand knowledge and professional insight. Through his work, he has established himself as a trusted voice in professional cycling journalism, bridging the gap between the sport and its global audience while maintaining rigorous editorial standards.
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- Individual Gautherat is the most exciting given his age too I agree. But Frigo and Balderstone for uae will be super valuable as doms areound those leaders. UAE just quitly uppgrade w/stronger and younger guys. Sivakov was on the down and Frigo replace all that with bigger engine. Balderstone seems like another brilliant under the radar pickup UAE is masters off....so exhausting they never missmiguel25-10-2026
- Surprised it’s that inexpensive!Lozza25-10-2026
- Nah, I like it here. I like a challenge, against the people who hate me here. Jumping John, you ain't getting rid of me :))PogiSloFans25-10-2026
- Pogi deserves every penny he gets paid... and he's the only cyclist that should be paid more. If he's two classes above everyone else, his salary should also be. Ad acta.PogiSloFans25-10-2026
- It’s not only that, it’s this obsession with running after money, whether it be teams, riders, sponsors, broadcasters. As soon as one player gets ahead, others feel obliged to match their moves with increases for fear of losing out and for fear of someone else following in your place instead without looking at the long-term consequences of blindly following. Other sports ahead (or behind depending on how you look at it) in such matters should serve as a warning but humanity has a habit of heading straight into walls even when the writing is on it. When financial objectives and limits aren’t clear, it’s impossible to manage any organisation, you can’t even recruit the right riders or tell them what is needed to make sure they’re a good fit because you can’t clearly explain what they can expect. Not all riders are motivated by money alone and some of the teams are proof of that.Jumpyjohn25-10-2026
- To be honest, their signings weren't actually too bad. Oscar and Kevin had great 2025 seasons. Most of the top leaders were signed. But Red Bull, Lidl-Trek and Pinarello showed that that's not actually the coast. So team culture is probably the foremost reason. Whether there's a bad sporting culture now is debatable, but certainly there's the past. 2024 was the end of the old Ineos (it was not actually transition, it was slow decline)
Rafionain-Glas25-10-2026 - FYI. Pogi made his World Tour debut at the TDU in 2019. I remember it well because someone said watch out for Pogi as he did a good time up Corkscrew during training. Who would have thought he'd end up as the GOAT.Santiago25-10-2026
- FYI. Pogi's first World Tour race was at the TDU in 2019. I remember it well because someone said watch out for Pogi as he did a good time up Corkscrew during training. Who would have thought he end up as the GOAT.Santiago25-10-2026
- 50 million isnt low. But if you hire super domestiques for a million and 3rd rung leaders for 3-5 million, natural you dont have money left not the results expected. Most monuments and TDF are out of reach due to Pogi. But there were a promising 2nd rung leaders on the market and they went for broke to get Onley and Kevin. I put their entire troubles due to mismanagementabstractengineer25-10-2026
- I think it’s becoming clear that cycling got way ahead of itself for a few reasons and is now coming to the realisation that some rider salaries just exploded without justification and it snowballed until sponsors started pulling money out because THEY did not see any return on increased costs. Cycling is still a dying sport (that never moved out of the niche family) and will remain so if it doesn’t embrace and promote new ventures or manage to attract new markets. Even within cycling, fans are basically compartimentalised, (almost nobody here follows track for example), and the multiplication of possibilities hasn’t grown the sport, it has just split it into a larger number of smaller branches. If it weren’t for nation state sponsors (far too numerous already) other teams would never have (had to resort to) raised bigger budgets that are now leading to sponsor abandonment. That’s the difference between long-term steady growth and financial doping, the latter can also just blow up in your face. I will venture to wager that apart from one or two exceptional cases, rider salaries will no longer go up and are quite likely to actually drop over the next decade.Jumpyjohn25-10-2026
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