{"id":5694,"date":"2025-07-18T14:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5694\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:41:10","slug":"from-biathlon-to-the-tour-ralph-denk-on-discovering-germanys-great-gc-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5694\/","title":{"rendered":"From Biathlon to the Tour \u2013 Ralph Denk on discovering Germany\u2019s great GC hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florian Lipowitz<\/a> is seen as Germany\u2019s great hope at the 2025 Tour de France<\/a> \u2013 and the story of how he found his way into professional cycling is anything but ordinary. On the Sportschau Tourfunk podcast, Ralph Denk<\/a>, team manager of Red Bull \u2013 BORA \u2013 hansgrohe, offered fascinating insight into how the young talent was discovered and how a biathlete became a pro cyclist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lovely story,\u201d Denk begins, recalling his first contact with Lipowitz back in 2020. \u201cThe phone rang, my assistant put the call through: \u2018There\u2019s someone on the line who wants to become a professional cyclist \u2013 he\u2019s currently a biathlete.\u2019 I thought, \u2018Okay, put him through, I\u2019ll hear what he has to say.\u2019 And it turned out to be a really inspiring conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a few days later, Denk invited the then-teenager out for lunch. \u201cIt was January, and he showed up in full cycling gear. When I asked him where he\u2019d come from, he said, \u2018From school.\u2019 I knew his school was more than 100 kilometres away. I said, \u2018Respect.\u2019 That was the first sign for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That meeting quickly became a pivotal moment for Denk. \u201cWe had a good chat and came up with a plan. I told him he couldn\u2019t turn pro straight away \u2013 he was already too old for the U19 ranks \u2013 but I\u2019d think of something.\u201d After around two hours of conversation, Lipowitz asked, \u201cIs there somewhere I can get changed? I want to get back into my cycling kit and ride home.\u201d And so he set off again \u2013 more than 100 kilometres on the bike.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a clear indicator for me,\u201d Denk explains. \u201cWanting something is one thing. Talent is another. But when you see that kind of determination, it already tells you a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognising that commitment, Denk arranged for Lipowitz to join the Tirol KTM Cycling Team, where he gained his first experience in smaller professional races. \u201cThen he came back to us, and his journey continued,\u201d says Denk.<\/p>\n

Today, Denk describes the 24-year-old\u2019s career as a true passion project: \u201cIt always feels different when someone you\u2019ve helped from the very beginning makes it, compared to spending a lot of money to sign someone like Peter Sagan. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 those moments are fantastic too, and I cherish the memories of Sagan winning for us. But when a rider you\u2019ve brought through your own project becomes a pro \u2013 like Emanuel Buchmann or Pascal Ackermann \u2013 those are special, emotional moments on a whole other level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florian Lipowitz is seen as Germany\u2019s great hope at the 2025 Tour de France \u2013 and the story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-5694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}