We’re one week into the Tour de France, one week and one big mountain stage, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is already deep into damage control mode. In more ways than one. The team’s two leaders, Florian Lipowitz and Remco Evenepoel, are both bleeding time to Tadej Pogačar. And to Jonas Vingegaard. Even Pogi’s teammate, Isaac del Toro, is ahead of both Red Bull riders after eight stages of racing.
Then there’s Evenepoel. Even before the race started, he was attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. A bristly pre-race press conference exposed an uneasiness with his team’s dual-leader strategy. After losing time to Pogačar on the Tourmalet, that exploded into outright hostility towards, of all people, Lipowitz.
People noticed. I mean, it would be hard not to when Evenepoel made his comments not to Lipowitz, this wasn’t some hot mic situation like Pogačar and Del Toro, but directly to an international media’s live broadcast.
That forced Red Bull into spin mode. Not on the trainer, but in front of the media’s microphones. Team staff spun Evenepoel’s outburst as passion, as hot headedness, and insisted that all was well within RBBH ranks.
As further proof of this general state of accord, the team shared a brief interview on its social media account. Because nothing says “we’re all getting along just fine” like having to publicly say “We’re all getting along just fine,” right?
Evenepoel after the Tourmalet. Photo: Sirotti
Act I, Scene III: The Tour Bus
It’s a stunning bit of theatre. You can watch the exchange on the team’s socials. If you’re not on Instagram, we’ve tried to present it here as faithfully as possible.
“So, happy with the result?” asks someone from Red Bull who has clearly been sent to do damage control.
“Yeah, of course” Lipowitz jumps in. “I think we can be happy with yesterday. Luckily today we have an easier day. I think everyone is looking forward to it.”
“Remco, happy also?” the voice follows up, in a tone somewhere between director and school headmaster.
“Yes yes. Fourth place for me, sixth place for Lipo. So, pretty good. Two guys were a bit in front,” Evenepoel adds, somewhat downplaying the stunning show from Tadej Pogačar. “But we arrived with all the other favourites for the podium, so that’s good for us. The first mountain stage is always special but we managed to do well. Now, two easy days, which we will need.
“Outside the bus they are waiting that you are in big fighting, but inside the bus it doesn’t look like it,” Red Bull’s man behind the camera says, somewhat leadingly.
“No, all good,” Remco says with a smile.
“You speak and you forget,” suggests the voice, only to be met by … silence from both riders.
Florian Lipowitz wasn’t showing too much emotion, good or bad, after Thursday’s finish. Photo: Sirotti
Chekhov’s Tour?
After two easier days of post-Tourmalet racing, Stage 9 is promising to crank the heat right back up to 11. Or maybe a hard 10, now that organizers have shortened the stage. But both the course and the temperatures are promising to test the GC favourites.
How will Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s team unity hold up? Their bit of theatre brings up an old rule of storytelling: If there’s a gun in the first act, it must be fired by the third act. After an outburst in week 1, can Evenepoel and Lipowitz make it to the Tour’s third week with their relationship, and the team’s Tour ambitions intact?