{"id":647934,"date":"2026-05-04T00:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/647934\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T00:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:28:09","slug":"i-stepped-up-from-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/647934\/","title":{"rendered":"I stepped up from last year"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cThe plan was to just follow Tadej\u2019s wheel. But I felt really good during the day. When we hit the last five kilometers, I thought there was nothing to lose,” Lipowitz said in a post-race interview with CyclingPro.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The German rider has been riding very well throughout the Swiss race and with his second place more than safe, he went on the attack on several occasions. He successfully dropped the rest of the field, but Pogacar held firm on his wheel. In a sprint finish the Slovenian always had the upper hand, and took the win, but not without a major effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the finish line I just tried, like two years ago, to go all out from the start of the last kicker,” Lipowitz explained. Pogacar also admitted in his post-race interview that ‘it was a fight to the finish line<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

Lipowitz finished second on the stage and overall classification. “I think I can be super happy and proud of how this week was.\u201d At the end of the day, whilst not a win, he can take motivation from his proximity to Pogacar.<\/p>\n

It can also be argued that it supports his argument for Tour de France leadership in the German team; whilst Remco Evenepoel was not able to follow Pogacar in the two instances where the two raced together (Tour of Flanders and Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was also quite on the limit. But I was just really happy to be with him and to have a chance to compete with him,” he admits. “Chapeau to him for another win. Still, I\u2019m super proud of how we raced today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lipowitz on the perfect route towards the Tour de France\u00a0<\/p>\n

After podiums at the Volta a Catalunya, Itzulia Basque Country and Tour de Romandie – against Jonas Vingegaard, Paul Seixas and Tadej Pogacar respectively – Lipowitz can be happy with a spring where he looked at his best, remained consistent and healthy. Potentially, it will help him step up ahead of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Catalunya, it went pretty well, training wise, and from race to race I felt better. Definitely, I think I stepped up from last year. We just need to continue with the things we\u2019re doing,” he added. At the Tour Auvergne – Rh\u00f2ne Alpes, he will have another crucial test, although all so far have had positive results.<\/p>\n

But firstly, some rest and an altitude camp. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to having some rest. Then we\u2019ll build up to the Tour. For sure, these three podiums give some confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe plan was to just follow Tadej\u2019s wheel. But I felt really good during the day. When…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,173159,39733,85,6494,64349],"class_list":["post-647934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-florian-lipowitz","tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-romandie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647934","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=647934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}