{"id":580280,"date":"2026-04-02T07:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580280\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:36:11","slug":"voigt-sees-remarkable-positive-character-development-in-evenepoel-he-supported-lipowitz-selflessly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580280\/","title":{"rendered":"Voigt sees \u2018remarkable positive character development\u2019 in Evenepoel: \u2018He supported Lipowitz selflessly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than a month away from racing, Florian Lipowitz<\/a> returned to the peloton and was immediately thrown in against much of the world\u2019s elite at the Tour of Catalonia<\/a>. He handled that challenge more than well enough, finishing third overall. But above all, his partnership with Remco Evenepoel<\/a> worked brilliantly, and that offers plenty of encouragement ahead of the Tour de France.What made Lipowitz\u2019s performance even more striking was that he was far from his very best in Catalonia. \u201cHe told us that he had felt unwell during altitude training and wasn\u2019t entirely sure whether he would even be able to get through the race,\u201d Jens Voigt<\/a> told Eurosport. \u201cAnd then he still produces a performance like that. Just imagine what it would have looked like if he had been in top shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German climbed with the best and delivered a highly consistent level throughout the week. In doing so, he showed that his outstanding 2025 campaign was no fluke. \u201cI\u2019m extremely happy with the way he is riding and with how he is handling all the attention since his third place in the Tour de France,\u201d Voigt said. \u201cA lot of German fans are hoping Florian will become the next German Tour winner. It is fascinating to see how he deals with that and how grounded he has remained.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis consistent performances are no longer down to luck,\u201d Voigt continued. \u201cFlorian has been performing at a top level for a full year now. He finished third in both the Tour de France and the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 in 2025, beating Remco Evenepoel then as well, even though they were not yet on the same team. Florian now belongs among the absolute top riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"vingegaard-lipowitz-martinez\"\/Lipowitz\u2019s \u2018diesel engine\u2019 could be a real Tour assetSo in principle, Lipowitz should now be competing with the very biggest names in the sport. According to Voigt, that is already exactly what he is doing. \u201cWhether it was in last year\u2019s Tour or now in Catalonia, every time Tadej Poga\u010dar or Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> attacked, Lipowitz was one of the few riders trying to go with them. He is not yet at the same level as Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard, although in the mountains he is closer to them than he is in the time trial. In that discipline, Poga\u010dar, Vingegaard and also Evenepoel have an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, Vingegaard and Poga\u010dar have a more explosive attack in the mountains.\u201d That, however, is also where the German climber has a different kind of strength. \u201cLipowitz tries to reel them back in gradually with his diesel-engine method. He cannot follow their first brutal acceleration. If he tried to do that, he would quickly go into the red and then need ten minutes to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"vingegaard-pogacar-lipowitz\"\/Evenepoel earns Voigt\u2019s respect: \u2018Remarkable positive character development\u2019Voigt was equally impressed<\/a> by Evenepoel, especially because of the way the Belgian approached his role in Catalonia. \u201cEvenepoel realised that he was not in the shape to finish on the podium. But his team-mate was. He then supported Florian selflessly and consistently rode for him. Evenepoel has gone through a remarkable positive character development. In similar races in the past, he sometimes lost motivation and abandoned in spectacular fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That says a great deal for the Tour de France, where the two are expected to start together as co-leaders. In Voigt\u2019s view, Catalonia was a successful test of that dynamic. \u201cThe two have found each other and are functioning as equal leaders. That will make it significantly harder for the other teams to beat Red Bull in the Tour, because they will have two almost equally strong general classification riders at the start who are loyal to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than a month away from racing, Florian Lipowitz returned to the peloton and was immediately thrown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,173159,236967,6495,39733,8396,85,6494,186824],"class_list":["post-580280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-florian-lipowitz","tag-jens-voigt","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-of-catalonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}