Tour de France: Tour debutant Lipowitz impresses the cycling world

Debütant at the Tour de France and already a candidate for the podium in Paris: Germany’s hope of hope Florian Lipowitz impressed the cycling world with his third place on the first high mountain stage in the Pyrenees. The 24-year-old Schwabe from the tour dominator received the greatest compliment for his performance. “I think we’ll see a lot of him in the next few days and years,” predicted Tadej Pogacar, who stormed back into the yellow jersey with his victory on the 12th stage.

For Lipowitz, it couldn’t be better at the moment on the first tour of France. The goal of standing on the podium with a driver in Paris by his German racing team takes realistic shapes after the convincing climbing section. In the overall ranking, Lipowitz climbed from eighth to fourth overall place. Third place is already within sight – it is only 49 seconds behind the Belgian double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.

Think: “Stay healthy, then it is possible”

Lipowitz can already take the next big step into the spotlight on the 13th stage. The short but extremely hard mountain time trial over 10.9 kilometers from Loudenvielle up to the small airfield near Peyragudes is according to its taste: “In short and super hard. Then we hope that things will continue.” Lipowitz had already ranked a strong sixth place on the first time trial of the tour.

Lipowitz seems to be about to replace the experienced captain Primoz Roglic. In any case, a clear tendency is recognizable for his boss Ralph Denk: “He is probably the better one,” he said after his young driver’s grandiose appearance in Hautacam. “The time trial will most likely be a good race.” In his opinion, the podium is only decided on the stage on Saturday or afterwards in the Alps, but first it looks quite good. Until then, the motto is: “Stay healthy, then it is possible.”