{"id":27463,"date":"2025-07-28T00:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T00:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/27463\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T00:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T00:27:08","slug":"i-just-want-to-race-florian-lipowitz-vows-not-to-change-racing-style-after-debut-tour-de-france-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/27463\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I just want to race’ – Florian Lipowitz vows not to change racing style after debut Tour de France podium"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of the Tour de France<\/a>, an unidentified \u2018secret pro\u2019 wrote for Escape Collective <\/a>that Florian Lipowitz <\/a>races \u201catrociously bad.\u201d The 24-year-old German, according to the unnamed peloton insider, is a rider \u201cwho is clueless but riding really strong.\u201d They added of his ride at the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 where he finished third: \u201cI was watching him attack and then dangle five seconds in front of the peloton that was riding tempo, thus exposing himself to the wind and wasting incredible amount of energy\u2026 he was just constantly doing the opposite of what he should be doing. He\u2019s clearly an insane talent, but he races horribly.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the Tour de France, Lipowitz, that unstylish and at times suicidal bike rider, has won the white jersey for the best young rider and finished third overall, behind winner Tadej Poga\u010dar <\/a>and Jonas Vingegaard.<\/a> Remove those two epoch-defining superstars from the picture, and Lipowitz, riding his first Tour, has been the best bike rider. Third, despite concerted pressure <\/a>from Oscar Onley, is deservedly his.<\/p>\n

But even he can\u2019t shirk those aforementioned accusations. \u201cI started racing UCI races just five-and-a-half years ago,\u201d he says, a nod to him only switching to cycling from biathlon at the age of 18, \u201cso it would also be strange if I was doing everything perfectly. It\u2019s also in my nature. As a GC racer, you always have to be patient, to be calm, to be saving energy, but I just want to race. Maybe sometimes it\u2019s stupid, and the DSs are not really happy with me sometimes, but that\u2019s why we are here: we want to race.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s right: his sports directors are not always happy. Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe<\/a>\u2019s DS Enrico Gasparotto admitted<\/a> after the Alps that the young German was naive, cursing Lipowitz\u2019s valley attack on stage 18 that ultimately led to him losing significant time. \u201cYesterday was a good f**k up,\u201d Gasparotto said. \u201cThe attack of Lipo was never planned. That was all the discussion this morning, trying to explain to him what happens in Grand Tours in the third week.\u201d Lipowitz is a listener; he\u2019s taken on board those comments. \u201cFor sure, I can still improve a lot,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

For Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, that\u2019s a tantalising proposition. They went into the race with two co-leaders, but in reality most of those hopes were pinned on the veteran Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d<\/a>. This is not the article to discuss the Slovenian\u2019s laissez faire, peculiar approach<\/a> to the race, but it is the article to debate if Lipowitz \u2013 the first German to finish on the podium of the Tour since Andreas Kl\u00f6den in 2006 \u2013 will get the chance to lead a German team at the Tour in 2026. Because, if you haven\u2019t heard already, Remco Evenepoel is primed to join Red Bull from Soudal Quick-Step<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far it\u2019s only a rumour,\u201d Lipowitz says of the Evenepoel transfer talk, \u201cand we have to see in the next year who really comes. But if he comes I\u2019ll also be happy with that. I think we can also achieve something good together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future is for another day; today is for celebrating. Third in his first Tour, just six years after he was skiing through forests and shooting at targets. That sort of stuff is not meant to happen. But Lipowitz \u2013 equal part shy, equal part composed and confident \u2013 is no ordinary athlete. He\u2019s blessed, as the \u2018secret pro\u2019 said, with \u201cinsane talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think I need, for sure, one or two days to realise what happened in the last three weeks,\u201d he adds. \u201cI am super happy being on the podium of the Tour. It was always a dream but I thought it would maybe never happen. It being my first Tour and being on the podium is something really special.\u201d<\/p>\n

He might be innocent and raw in his racing, but he\u2019s not blind to reality. If he\u2019s going to one day win yellow, he\u2019s going to have to dislodge Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard. \u201cYou also saw Pogi and Jonas\u2026 they\u2019re on a different level,\u201d he says. \u201cThe last three years went pretty well for me, and it won\u2019t always go that way for me and there will be some setbacks. It\u2019s why I want to enjoy the moment now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in his home country of Germany, they\u2019re getting excited about the skier-cum-cyclist. Talk of a heir to Jan Ullrich is no longer premature but justified. Lipowitz has not reached a level of fame yet where he\u2019ll be recognised in most city centre streets, but he\u2019s aware that Lipo Fever is now a thing. \u201cTo be honest, the last three weeks I\u2019ve lived in a bubble,and I didn\u2019t realise what\u2019s going on outside of the cycling world. But I will realise it in the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cclueless\u201d bike rider, it appears, is rather bloody good. If he refines his scattergun tactics, the top step in Paris could be his one day. \u201cI haven\u2019t even thought yet about the next goals or the next years. For now I don\u2019t think about the future too much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the start of the Tour de France, an unidentified \u2018secret pro\u2019 wrote for Escape Collective that Florian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-27463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27463","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=27463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}