99 days before the start of the Tour de France, Florian Lipowitz showed himself in strong early form and clearly won the internal Red Bull duel with double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel at the Tour of Catalonia on Friday (March 27th, 2026).
The German cycling hopeful took fourth place at the mountain finish on the Coll de Pal. The two-time tour champion Jonas Vingegaard was once again in a class of his own. The Dane, who had recently won the Paris-Nice tour, won by a clear margin.
The question of captaincy for the tour is still open
Lipowitz was 1:01 minutes behind at the finish after 153.1 kilometers, with only the Austrian Felix Gall (0:51) and the Frenchman Lenny Martinez just ahead of him. Superstar Evenepoel finished sixth on the 16.9 kilometer long final climb with an average gradient of seven percent, losing 37 seconds to Lipowitz.
The Belgian moved to Red Bull at the beginning of the year. On the tour, he will form a dual leadership role with Lipowitz; a clear captaincy role is not initially planned. Lipowitz now fourth overall In the overall ranking, Lipowitz jumped to fourth place and is now 1:13 minutes behind Vingegaard, who has the overall victory in sight.
Vingegaard feels “really good”
“That was a tough stage. We had a plan. I felt really good on the last climb”said Vingegaard. He didn’t expect such a big lead. The tour ends on Sunday in Barcelona, followed by a demanding mountain stage over 158.2 kilometers from Berga to Santuari de Queralt on Saturday. “I love winning big races. It’s good preparation for what lies ahead”emphasized the Dane.
