Cycling ace Florian Lipowitz won the first big showdown with his new teammate Remco Evenepoel and became the first German to reach the podium in the traditional Tour of Catalonia.
The third-place finisher from the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe racing team claimed third place overall on the seventh and final stage in Barcelona and left a strong impression at the same place around three months before the start of the Tour de France. “We missed out on a stage win this week, but I think we can be super happy with our performance here,” said the 25-year-old.
While the two-time tour champion Jonas Vingegaard confidently secured the overall victory and continued to be in excellent early form, Lipowitz was able to follow every attack in the finale around the Olympic Stadium and attacked himself. Ultimately, he took part in the sprint for Olympic champion Evenepoel on the Montjuic circuit with a classic profile.
Jonas Vingegaard (m.) on the podium next to Lenny Martinez (l.) and Florian Lipowitz (r.)
The Belgian ultimately had to settle for third place behind the Australian Brady Gilmore (NSN Cycling Team) and the Frenchman Dorian Godon (Ineos Grandiers).
Noble helper Evenepoel?
Evenepoel had not been able to keep up with Lipowitz on the climbs of the past few days, but on Saturday the top star set the pace for the German when he took third place at the mountain finish in Queralt. “He was fantastic, did a great job for me. I’m incredibly grateful to him for that. The fact that a world champion could do something like that is simply unbelievable.”said Lipowitz, who was 1:30 minutes behind Vingegaard in the final classification.
The clear number one in Catalonia was the Dane Vingegaard, who won the two difficult mountain stages and his second stage race after Paris-Nice. The Jumbo Visma captain, who was 1:22 minutes ahead of Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) in the overall standings, looked prepared for big tour duels with Tadej Pogacar. First up, however, is the Giro d’Italia for Vingegaard.
