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.
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.
The Belgian ultimately had to settle for third place behind the Australian Brady Gilmore (NSN Cycling Team) and the Frenchman Dorian Godon (Ineos Grandiers). 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 man from Ulm when he took third place at the mountain finish in Queralt.
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.
Lipowitz was 1:30 minutes behind in the final classification. At the 105th edition of the Tour of Catalonia, which was first held in 1911, a German driver made it into the top three for the first time. Last year’s winner Primoz Roglic, also a Lipowitz teammate, was not at the start.
