Three amigos. How will Red Bull target the Grand Tours for their main leaders? Photos courtesy of SWpix.
The arrival of Remco Evenepoel at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe significantly enhances the team’s prospects for next year. Not only has the team signed a rider widely regarded as one of the greatest time trialists of all time and a genuine Classics contender, but Evenepoel is also a Grand Tour leader with ambitions of winning the Tour de France. Considerably younger than Primož Roglič and more experienced than Florian Lipowitz, the German team has finally secured a star-level rider in his absolute prime.
Yet Evenepoel’s arrival, Lipowitz’s improvements, and Roglič’s final season (possibly) all require careful management by the team, and that’s before even considering the ambitions of Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley. Over the coming weeks, the team will need to carefully balance riders’ aspirations, sponsors’ objectives, and the 2026 Grand Tour selections, while also considering the long-term implications for the team’s future roster with the choices they make for next season.
In this article, we’ll examine the team’s potential rosters for the three Grand Tours. Of course, the route for the Tour is known, and it’s expected that Evenepoel and Lipowitz will almost certainly share leadership following Zak Dempster’s comments to us last month. It’ll be interesting to see if that shared leadership is 50:50 or more, like 70:30…
Regarding the Giro d’Italia, the full route isn’t yet confirmed, but the race will start in Bulgaria, with likely only one individual time trial of around 40km – not enough to tempt Evenepoel to compromise his Tour ambitions, while Roglič has already set his sights on having the team’s support at the Vuelta a España as he chases an astonishing fifth title.
Let me know what your selections would be in the comments below…
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We’ll start with the Tour. When Evenepoel was confirmed as a Red Bull rider in August, we listed the following names as potential teammates: Roglič, Lipowitz, Jai Hindley, Dani Martínez, Mattia Cattaneo, Gianni Moscon, and Laurence Pithie.
Since then, we’ve learned the route for the Tour, and given that Evenepoel is likely to lead the line alongside Lipowitz, it makes sense to consider replacing Roglič with other options.