Tour de France: Lipowitz becomes the victim of tactics and overdoors

Florian Lipowitz loses time at the Col de la Loze and, as the overall knuckle, is only 22 seconds ahead of fourth place. The white jersey is also in danger. The reasons are tactical misjudgments of his team and an high -spirited attack.

Rain and hail had long since stopped at the Col de la Loze, the tourtross tortured himself down the mountain, past the team hotels. There may have been some lively discussions there. There was a lot to process after this “brutal day”, as the two -time tour winner Jonas Vingegaard referred to the 18th stage. “I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced such a hard day at the Tour de France,” said the Dane.

It was a day when the racing situation had constantly changed and there were tactical misjudgments, burst alliances, winners and losers. Florian Lipowitz also belonged to the latter – at least on paper.

The team opts for offensive

The young German cyclist had lost fourth place in the overall ranking on the Col de la La Loze. The Scotsman Oscar Oney is now only 22 seconds behind Lipowitz and threatens not only to contest the space on the podium in Paris, but also the white jersey of the best young professional.

Lipowitz was not only a victim of his own overmuture, but also the tactics of his own team and the racing circumstances. “Our strategy was to drive actively and put pressure on our competitors to put the podium,” said the sporting director of the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe team, Enrico Gasparotto, later on record.

For this reason, the German team had sent its nominal captain Primoz Roglic to an outlier group that was only 38 seconds behind onley in the overall classification before the stage. This also seemed to work great before the fight for the yellow jersey broke out on the second increase of the day, the Col de la Madeleine.

Vingegaard isolates Pogacar – and Lipowitz

There, Vingegaard’s Team Visma-Lease A Bike had pushed the pace so that Vingegaard could not shake off his rival Tadej Pogacar with an attack, but had isolated the Slovenian, which was driving in yellow. As a result, Lipowitz suddenly found himself alone: in front of him Pogacar and Vingegaard, who had opened up to Roglic. Onley was clearly behind him. “He stayed calm and found his rhythm,” praised Gas Parotto afterwards.

In fact, Lipowitz drove heavily and then even found the group around the yellow jersey at the bottom, because Vingegaard and his teammate Matteo Jorgenson did not bring any alliance in order to further expand the lead. Jorgenson tried loudly, but in vain to get Felix Gall to take the lead – although he, as the seventh of the classification, had to be interested in driving out time at this point in time.

Lipowitz attacks and drives into “The Hell”

Vingegaard and Jorgenson then stopped the speed because this would have used Pogacar in particular. Instead, Jorgenson jumped after the attack by the later stage winner Ben O’Connor and the Colombian of a Rubio. “We didn’t want to drive with Tadej in the slipstream, so it was better for us to get from behind and to have Matteo at the top,” said the sports director of Visma-Lease A Bike, Grischa Niermann, later.

Lipowitz used this constellation for his own attack, which initially brought him a three -minute lead over the group around Pogacar and Vingegaard, but then had “the hell” experienced on the last two kilometers up to the Col de la Loze, as he later confessed.

However, his team did not intend to slow Lipowitz ‘offensive urge. “Florian is a young driver on his first Tour de France, he likes to drive offensive. And sometimes you have to risk something to win something,” said Gas Parotto. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This is something that you learn and develop further.”

Lipowitz and Roglic still have the better cards

There is no doubt about that, but in the end not only Lipowitz, but also his team -mate Roglic was a loser. Because Oscar Onley, who had stayed with Pogacar and Vingegaard almost until the end, not only made up for more than one and a half minutes on Lipowitz, but also expanded his lead over Roglic by 48 seconds.

Lipowitz denied the question of whether it might not have been better if Roglic and he did a common cause at the final climb. “We both have open roles and I think if you have a good day and can’t lose time, then you have to drive too.”

The fight for third place in Paris is therefore still open, even if the Red Bull duo still has the better tactical possibilities towards Onley, which is largely on its own. The struggle for the yellow jersey, on the other hand, should already be decided after the royal stage – although Jonas Vingegaard bravely claimed on the Col de la Loze: “It is not over yet.”

Pogacar sees the day as victory

But whatever you try at Visma-Lease A Bike: You can’t get Tadej Pogacar into trouble. On the contrary – Pogacar was able to expand his lead by a few seconds. It has now been separated from his rival for around four and a half minutes. The goal of the day was to defend yellow, said Pogacar. “In this respect, I understand the day today as a victory.”

Vingegaard’s sports director Grischa Niermann sounded much more pessimistic before the last mountain stage on Friday: “We tried everything, but the strongest driver is wearing the yellow jersey. It is very likely that the result will be the same tomorrow.”