Florian Lipowitz is getting closer and closer to his Tour form, only dominator Tadej Pogacar is still a size too big for the German cycling star. The 25-year-old finished the demanding Tour de Romandie and the final stage in second place behind the Slovenian world champion.
On the fifth and final stage, Lipowitz attacked several times on the final climb in Leysin, which was more than 14 kilometres long, but was unable to shake off Pogacar. At the end of the 178.2 kilometres, Pogacar, who was competing in western Switzerland for the first time, celebrated his fourth stage win.
"There was nothing left to lose in the last five kilometres. That's why I attacked and was alone with Pogi. I then tried everything in the sprint," said Lipowitz. "I can be very happy and proud of how the week went." There was praise for the performance of Pogacar himself: "That was a tough day. Florian attacked first and did a really good job. He opened the sprint quite early and it was a fight to the finish line."
Lipowitz in good form
In the overall standings, Lipowitz was 42 seconds behind Pogacar. Lipowitz distanced third-placed French mountain specialist Lenny Martinez by 2:02 minutes. After third place in the Tour of Catalonia and second place in the Basque Country, the Red Bull pro finished on the podium for the third time this year.
Despite his inferiority to Pogacar, Lipowitz showed a clear improvement with regard to the tour. In the spring, he was still struggling with infections and, despite good placings, was not yet where he wanted to be in terms of form. In Romandie, Lipowitz looked much more stable.
Shared captaincy in France?
With an eye on the summer, Lipowitz is now back in training. From mid-May, he will be travelling to the heights of the Sierra Nevada for almost three weeks. In winter, Lipowitz described this as the most important camp. After that, the Tour of Slovenia from 17 to 21 June is just one more race before the Tour de France, which starts on 4 July in Barcelona.
Lipowitz is supposed to share the captain's role in the Tour with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel. So far, however, the Belgian's performances have raised doubts as to whether he will be able to keep up with Lipowitz and the other favourites on the climbs. Five mountain finishes are on the programme for the Tour of France.
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