The colours green and white carry a special meaning for Lidl-Trek’s Juanpe López.
Born south of Sevilla, Spain, the 25-year-old grew up a loyal supporter of Real Betis, los verdiblancos, one of the city’s two biggest football teams. He collected shirt after shirt, as any child fan does. On Friday, he picked up another, this time a cycling one, the leader’s jersey of the Tour of the Alps, dyed in the green and white of his beloved club.
“My coach told me, ‘Do it for Betis’,” he smiled afterwards, sitting in his press conference as the race’s overall winner. “Football is very important to me. I’ve been playing it since I was a kid, so it has been a passion all my life.”
On Thursday, after climbing 4,000m through the queen stage, López marched into the press room and picked up a football, one of the sponsor’s marketing products that was expected to sit untouched on the table.
Unprompted, he dropped it onto his right foot, and without uttering a word, did around 30 kick-ups. He then shouted “Betis” across the room of journalists.
The moment stunned those in attendance, who wondered if he’d repeat the trick should he keep the race lead on the final day. Of course, with his victory sealed in Levico Terme, López couldn’t resist.
This time, he waited for his press conference to finish. The football sat at the end of the table. As he got up to leave, stage five’s winner, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, teed up the Spaniard, who gladly obliged to show of his skills. Cycling Weekly, sat in the second row, counted 34 kick-ups, all with his right foot.
The most impressive part is that he López was wearing Lidl trainers that looked three sizes too big.
“This is my first stage race victory,” he said proudly, choking up at his achievement. “I’m very happy for me, for my family, for my friends.”
In the end, though, the win was not for his boyhood Betis. Poignantly, López dedicated it instead to his Lidl-Trek team boss, Luca Guercilena, who has been living with cancer for almost three years.
“Everybody knows our manager is not in good health,” he said. “It’s for Luca. I thought about him all day, and I said I needed to do it for him. And I made it.”
