\nLeadership tug-of-war<\/p>\n
Evenepoel joins the team with Olympic titles, multiple time trial rainbow jerseys and a Vuelta victory to his name. He also arrives with an expectation to lead. \u201cRemco comes with a certain demand,\u201d team boss Ralph Denk said when announcing the signing. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to just ride \u2014 he wants to shape the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
That ambition could come at the expense of Lipowitz, who has carried the German team\u2019s GC hopes over the past season. \u201cI hope they still give him the chance to build on what he\u2019s achieved,\u201d Migels said. \u201cBut with Red Bull now involved as an Austrian sponsor, it might not be their top priority to see Lipowitz back on the Tour podium.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roglic, meanwhile, remains an ever-present factor. Though now entering the later stages of his career, the Slovenian is still a proven Grand Tour winner with expectations to lead at the biggest races. That leaves three riders with major ambitions and only one undisputed leadership slot at the Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t fully understand the Evenepoel signing\u201d<\/p>\n
Migels is blunt in his assessment of the Belgian\u2019s arrival. \u201cI didn\u2019t fully understand the signing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could have built on the project they already had \u2014 on Florian and the younger riders at Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Migels also suggested that, while Evenepoel is a formidable talent, the Tour might not be where he shines brightest. \u201cI doubt whether Remco can remain that stable mentally and physically over three weeks at the Tour. With Florian, expectations need to be kept realistic, of course, but I\u2019m convinced he\u2019ll be more capable than Remco of putting Pogacar and Vingegaard under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
With new management behind the scenes and three Grand Tour leaders in one team, 2026 could prove decisive for the long-term direction of Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe. Will the team back its German rising star, double down on its marquee Belgian signing, or lean once more on Roglic\u2019s experience? One thing is clear: for Migels, Lipowitz has earned the right to lead. \u201cHe has the ability to carry the flag for German cycling,\u201d the commentator concluded. \u201cBut he needs the platform to do it.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leadership tug-of-war Evenepoel joins the team with Olympic titles, multiple time trial rainbow jerseys and a Vuelta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-188678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}