Liane Lippert is aiming to defend her title at the German Road Bike Championships. But your eyes are already on the Tour de France.
When it comes to her goals, Liane Lippert doesn’t beat around the bush. “I will definitely try to defend my title,” says the professional cyclist in an interview with SWR Sport. In concrete terms, this means that she wants to win the jersey with the black, red and gold stripes for the third time in her career at the German Championships road race on June 24th in Bad Dürrheim and the surrounding area.
The fact that the 25-year-old from Friedrichshafen has already been able to see the 1,800-metre-high route with lots of Black Forest character is anything but a matter of course. Lippert’s calendar is jam-packed. Race dates and intensive training blocks, including the necessary travel, alternate happily. Most recently, she completed a three-week high-altitude training camp in Andorra, and Lippert’s last visit to Lake Constance was in May. Job-related fate of a professional racing driver – a successful one at that.
With the Spanish World Tour team Movistar, with whom she has been under contract since this season, the native of Baden-Württemberg does a lot of work for her captain Annemiek van Vleuten from the Netherlands. As a mountain specialist with a certain final speed, Lippert often appears at the top of the overall rankings even in tours and stage races.
Liane Lippert: Two podiums at Ardennes classics
She has finished in the top ten twice this season on both the UAE Tour in the United Arab Emirates and the Tour of the Basque Country. Her focus, however, was on the Ardennes classics, the popular one-day races in Belgium. With a third place in the “Pfeil von Brabant” and second place in the “Flèche Wallonne” she achieved two podium finishes.
“I would say that I had a very good spring and was in consistently good form,” Lippert looks back. This is exactly what the racing driver would like to achieve at the highlights of the season in summer: in July, both the Tour of Italy and the Tour de France are coming up. For those on 23.7. At the beginning of the loop through France, she visited the most important mountain, the Col du Tourmalet, during training. If it’s up to Lippert, next time she’ll be going up there with the new championship jersey.
TV tip
The SWR broadcasts the German cycling championships in the Black Forest. On Saturday, June 24th, Women’s Race (4:15pm-6pm) and on Sunday, June 25th, that Men’s Road Race (15:15-16:45). Both races live on SWR TV and in the stream on swr.de/sport and on YouTube.
“It’s good for German cycling”
For that, she will probably not only need to be in good form in the national title fights, but also have to fend off the attacks of the other riders. Born in Ingolstadt, Ricarda Bauernfeind from Team Canyon/SRAM Racing is one of the strongest Germans so far this season. At the Tour of Spain “La Vuelta” at the beginning of May the current runner-up finished fifth overall. That’s also why Lippert is preparing for an exciting championship – and is happy about the ever-growing group of strong German drivers.
“It’s good for German cycling and for women’s cycling. I think it’s good to see more young talent coming up,” says the 25-year-old. “At World Championships and European Championships we are a team – and stronger together.” As I said: When it comes to goals, Liane Lippert does not beat around the bush.
