High hopes: Voigt trusts Lipowitz to reach Tour podium again

The 17-time Tour participant Jens Voigt believes that German cycling hopeful Florian Lipowitz can pull off another coup in this year's Tour of France. Lipowitz could "certainly" confirm last year's third place. He has "great hopes and optimism", Voigt told the German Press Agency, recalling that the 25-year-old recently finished second in the Tour of the Basque Country.

"Last year, Florian was one of the few who tried to react to Tadej Pogacar," said Voigt. The gap of eleven minutes in the overall classification was a lot. "Nevertheless, I don't think he's that far away. If Pogacar doesn't get any better and perhaps has a mediocre day, and Florian only improves by two per cent, then he's on a par. There's not much missing. We're talking about minimal differences," explained the 54-year-old.

Lipowitz and Evenepoel share the captaincy

The signing of double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel means that Lipowitz will share the captain's role in the summer. However, Voigt rates Lipowitz as stronger than the Belgian in the high mountains.

Voigt assumes that Evenepoel would accept a helper role for Lipowitz in this case. "He'll be a bit unhappy and gnash his teeth. But I think he's sensible and mature enough to say: 'Ok, I'm now in the second row and I'm now a helper'."

This year's tour starts on 4 July in Barcelona. Last year, Lipowitz not only finished third overall behind Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, but also won the junior classification.

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