Roglic fizzles out, Lipowitz holds on as Red Bull risk in the Alps

All’s well that ends well, even if Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s approach on the last two mountain stages of the Tour de France was a rather disjointed one. The race should now finish with Florian Lipowitz on the podium in Paris, though Primož Roglič slipped three places to eighth overall after his ill-fated long-range attack on stage 19 to La Plagne.

Roglič was among the attackers over the shortened stage’s first climb, the tough Col de Pré, and he was still in front with Lenny Martinez and Valentin Paret-Peintre over the top of the Cormet de Roselend.

The Slovenian pressed on alone on the descent, but with UAE Team Emirates-XRG clearly keen to tee things up for a possible Tadej Pogacar stage win, he only had half a minute in hand on the yellow jersey group on the long valley towards the foot of the climb.

Yet despite the slim odds, Roglič persisted in his lone endeavour, and he was quickly jettisoned out of the back of the yellow jersey group once the final climb began. He would eventually lose more than twelve minutes on the rain-soaked ascent to La Plagne, having rolled the dice on stage victory from the break.

Fifth place on the Tour was never going to change Roglič’s career of his course – indeed, before the Tour began, he said that winning the whole thing wouldn’t change his life – but his presence in the yellow jersey group on the final climb might have benefited his young teammate Lipowitz, who was locked in battle with Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) for the third step of the podium.

But after struggling on the Col de la Loze on Thursday after his own ill-advised solo effort, Lipowitz was altogether more solid here. He outlasted Onley on the climb and even accelerated in the final kilometre to put more time into the Scot.

Lipowitz placed fourth on the stage, six seconds down on winner Thymen Arensman but, crucially, 41 clear of Onley. He now has a buffer of 1:03 on Onley in the overall standings, and he should become the first German to stand on the podium in Paris since Andreas Klöden in 2006.

“I knew after yesterday that Onley was really strong, but I just had to keep his wheel, and I think I managed that quite well,” Lipowitz said. “On the last climb, you never know how the legs are in the end, but in the last few km I still felt quite ok, and so when I saw him dropping, I gave it everything.”

Speaking to TNT Sports, director sportif Enrico Gasparotto defended Red Bull’s decision to give Roglič the freedom to chase stage victory from the break rather than hold him back to ride in support of Lipowitz on the final haul to La Plagne. He pointed out that Roglič had already been an early attacker on stage 18 to the Col de la Loze and had come away frustrated after missing Ben O’Connor’s winning move.

“I would say it was clear already yesterday that Primož wanted to win a stage of the Tour,” Gasparotto said. “He knew our team goal was to finish on the podium but for himself he really wanted to win a stage, because yesterday was a missed opportunity. It was a tactic we agreed on it was part of the game.”

Gasparotto, who was the key strategist in Jai Hindley’s 2022 Giro d’Italia victory, insisted Red Bull were confident that Lipowitz had Onley’s measure on the final climb to La Plagne despite his struggles against the Scot the previous afternoon. 

“Last night, we did a lot of analysis of Florian’s performance yesterday, and so this morning we were quite confident that if he stayed on Onley’s wheel, he could be superior in the final,” Gasparotto said. “That’s why it was hard to accept the day of yesterday.”

The Red Bull view was that Lipowitz had simply wasted too much energy on stage 18 with his own, unplanned attack in the valley between the Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Loze.

“It surprised us but a minute he gained 30 seconds and soon he had 2:30 on the yellow jersey and 5:30 on Onley,” Gasparotto said. “It’s easy to say afterwards you should have stopped him, but in the end, it was just a crazy day and a crazy stage.”

So too was stage 19 in its own way, not least with Roglič’s solo effort, but this Tour looks set to end with a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider on the podium, the team’s best result at this race since Emanuel Buchmann placed fourth in 2019. 

“I mean, it’s a game,” Gasparotto said. “If you want to win big, you have to risk a little bit, otherwise, you don’t win big.”