Liane Lippert already had the chance to realize one of her cycling dreams on Sunday (04/23/23). There is the German road champion at Liège – Bastogne – Liège at the starting line. As one of the top favourites, after an almost perfect dress rehearsal.
Every turn of the crank hurts, her legs burn, but Liane Lippert’s head keeps pushing. Up the infamous wall of Huy, the final climb of the up to 26 percent steep Fleche Wallone Feminine last Wednesday. Only one competitor is even stronger than the German road champion, the winner Demi Vollering. Second place for Liane Lippert in one of the toughest one-day races on the Women’s World Tour, her best result ever in one of the big highlights of the racing calendar.
Change of scenery as career step
Ahead of this season, the 25-year-old completely changed her life as a professional cyclist. After six years in the DSM team, she switched to the Spanish Movistar racing team. There she now drives alongside what is probably the best road driver in the world, the Dutchwoman Annemiek van Vleuten – multiple world champion, winner of all major national tours. A win for both sides. “Annemiek wants to pass on her knowledge. I can benefit from that a lot. With the Flèche Wallone, she gave me the crucial tips on how to plan the final climb. That helped a lot”, Lippert enthuses about her prominent advisor.
Van Vleuten is still the figurehead of the Movistar team. But the Dutchwoman is already 40 years old and will resign at the end of the year. After that, Liane Lippert will take over her role as leader.
mentality difference
The Friedrichshafen resident describes the mentality there as the biggest difference between her old and the new team. “Everything is more relaxed with Movistar, much less control, more freedom, but still absolutely professional.” An example. In March, Liane Lippert completed the first altitude training camp of her life, three weeks on the Teide in Tenerife.
In the professional field for men, such preparations for the highlights of the season have long been standard. Also in the men’s team of DSM – but not in their women’s team. “We should have organized something like this ourselves. And paid for it ourselves. There was no support whatsoever from the team management.” Training at altitude, for Liane Lippert one of the keys to her current top performance. She also finished on the podium at the Pfeil von Brabant, and at the Amstel Gold Race the German was perhaps the strongest driver in the entire field.
It is all the more surprising that Lippert has only been able to win one race in the past three years, the German road championship in 2022. Nationally, Liane Lippert has long been the clear number one. At the Road World Championships in Australia last fall, she missed a medal, coming in fourth, by a very narrow margin.
Hard, hilly, but not necessarily in the high mountains – that’s what the perfect racing profile looks like for them. That’s why winning the world title is at the top of Liane Lippert’s sporting to-do list.
Tour de France
The third big highlight of her cycling year 2022 was the comeback of the Tour de France women. Even if Lippert missed a stage win, she knows that this race changed the perception of her sport significantly. “When I’m at the hairdresser today, my job as a professional cyclist still raises question marks, but the Tour de France is something for everyone.”
The Tour of France in mid-July is already firmly in sight. Her team has long planned a high-altitude training camp in advance and a route inspection of the key points. Because Movistar starts there as the defending champion. In 2022, Annemiek van Vleuten triumphed in a superior manner. This year, for the first time, one of the mountain icons is on the route map of the women’s tour, the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees. The perfect scenario from the point of view of her team: Annemiek van Vleuten wins the tour, Liane Lippert celebrates a stage victory.
Liège – Bastogne – Liège
Both top riders will share the captain’s role at Liège – Bastogne – Liège on Sunday. 142 kilometers, nine tough climbs in the Ardennes. “Maybe the toughest race of the year. I will reach my limits with the length of the climbs”, describes the co-favorite the challenge. All the more promising for her team to have two winners at once. “The podium is our minimum goal, but actually we want to win.” After her performance at Flèche Wallone on Wednesday, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the winner was Liane Lippert.