4 days Ago By [email protected] (Kirsten Frattini)
Jakob Söderqvist will be a name to remember, and after having competed under the Lidl-Trek Future Racing banner for two seasons, he is set to join the WorldTour counterpart beginning on January 1, 2026. The 21-year-old Swedish rider finished second at the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs last weekend behind his teammate Albert Withen Philipsen , who made the same step up to the top tier of professional racing this year with Lidl-Trek . "Stepping into the WorldTour team means the start of a new chapter in my sporting career and a chapter where the possibilities are endless.
All these things are pieces that I just dreamed of having before. I realised that I wanted to see how good I could become, so this chapter is about when I have these possibilities and try to make the most of them and see how far we can go," Söderqvist said in a team-issued statement on Tuesday. "The confirmation that I would join the WorldTour team wasn't sudden, but it was more a build-up since I was doing good results last year and felt like I got the kind of confirmation that it could be around the corner.
" His result at Paris-Roubaix Espoirs was not Söderqvist's first foray into the top ranks of under-23 and lower-ranked UCI racing. In 2024, he finished second in the Tour de la Provence prologue , behind teammate Mads Pedersen, then went on to further success against the clock at the Giro Next Gen and elite men's Swedish Championships. He also collected two silver medals at the under-23 World and European Championships, won Chrono Nations, and won road stages at the Tour de Bretagne and Flèche du Sud.
This year, Söderqvist has continued his success and was part of the Lidl-Trek team that won the team time trial at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and took third in stage 4 into Portell de Morella. He competed in a series of Spring Classics before finishing second at Paris-Roubaix Espoirs. "I knew it was going well, but at the same time, I was so busy with everything at that point, so I didn't really reflect on it much.
I just knew that I was on the way, but then actually sitting down and realising what position I am in in the sport is quite unreal and it is also unreal how quickly it progressed from just a year or two ago when I didn't know if it would be possible to make it professional," he said. "Now we are here and this is a big relief in a way, but also something that excites me a lot to really just see how I can work with this from now on in my own matter together with a team on the highest level and it's just, yeah, a really fun prospect." Söderqvist said that he decided to turn pro with Lidl-Trek because the team gives him the support and agency to be part of the decisions around his career, training, and racing programme.
"Lidl-Trek have really shown that we are on the same page with this, and I really feel at home. It's so personal, like relationships within the team. I have already some really, really good close friends that I invite to my home, and we share ideas.
We care about each other and share joy in each other's success really, which you don't find on the same level on other teams," he said. Söderqvist started club racing with the Scealand Cycling Team in 2021 before joining Lidl-Trek Future Racing in 2024 and 2025. He said he stayed an extra year with the Continental team to develop further so that he could occasionally race both lower-level races on the international calendar and join the top-tier squad.
"It's really just dividing the step up into two pieces, getting more support towards the level where the WorldTour is, but without the expectation. All the pressure and all the professionalism to live up to and everything, you can, like ease into it. I feel like with the two steps, there's less risk and less things that could be hard for you to get your head around when you do make the step up," he said.
"Already this year, my development was beyond what I would expect, and maybe this comes around again, maybe it's only a small step more, but for sure I'm in a good position now, and I feel like when opportunities come, I have the tools to take advantage of them." Lidl-Trek Future Racing DS, Sebastian Andersen said Söderqvist has shown a lot of potential, given that he has only been racing for a few years. He said the young rider demonstrates "incredible power" in the time trial and in races with challenging terrain and weather conditions.
"This year, Jakob has been doing a middle step, where he has been racing a little bit with the WorldTour team as well, learning even more, and putting another level on top of his already good starting point to help him be more consistent in his approach to racing," Andersen said. "Doing a transitional year is great – just because you had one good season, doesn't mean that you know everything. And for Jakob to have the confidence and the trust in us, believing that this is a good plan for him, is a sign of a good way of working together.
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