For Florian Lipowitz, who finished third last year, the 113th Tour de France is already decided from a sporting perspective. “The gap to Pogacar is, of course, already huge. And I think that if he can get through the race without any crashes and stays fit, there’s no way past him now,” said Lipowitz during a press conference on the second rest day of the Tour de France.
Defending champion Tadej Pogacar leads the general classification by 5:00 minutes ahead of Lipowitz’s team-mate Remco Evenepoel. Lipowitz is 6:48 minutes behind in fifth place.
Lipowitz steps in to help his team-mates
Looking at the division of roles within the Red Bull team, Lipowitz now sees Evenepoel as the team leader. “If you look at the results now, and also yesterday’s performance – and tomorrow’s, of course – Remco is the priority. The important thing is that one of us finishes on the podium. Remco has the best chance of doing so,” emphasised Lipowitz, who is also on hand to support him.
Evenepoel won Sunday’s stage on the Plateau de Solaison and, as the individual time trial world champion, is also the favourite in Tuesday’s 16th stage time trial.
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