Felix Schröder and Stefan Tabeling, dpa
Florian Lipowitz took a high-risk approach into a bend – then the German cycling prospect’s front wheel skidded out, and his Tour de France came to an end with a hard impact on the tarmac. Eight kilometres from the finish of the individual time trial, the 25-year-old got into the ambulance, clutching his arm.
“I’ve heard that Florian has crashed. That puts a bit of a damper on the whole thing. I wish him a speedy recovery,” said Remco Evenepoel, who went on to win the stage and is a teammate of Lipowitz. The Belgian Olympic champion was 28 seconds faster than overall leader Tadej Pogacar on the 26.1-kilometre stage to Thonon-les-Bains.
Nevertheless, Pogacar continues to lead the overall standings comfortably. The Slovenian is 4 minutes and 32 seconds ahead of Evenepoel. In third place is the Mexican Isaac del Toro, 6 minutes and 51 seconds behind Pogacar.
Following the withdrawal of the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, Lipowitz is the second favourite for a podium place to have dropped out. The Swabian had sensationally finished third overall in last year’s Tour de France.
Evenepoel takes the stage win
Not far from Lake Geneva, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel surged across the finish line, proving unstoppable in his speciality. It had already been expected that the Belgian would extend his lead over Lipowitz on his home country’s national holiday. But not in this way.
Both set off on the Tour as co-captains on an equal footing. Over time, Evenepoel proved to be the better rider. After the gruelling Tourmalet stage, the Belgian had also levelled fierce criticism at the German. Outwardly, however, it was repeatedly emphasised that the two got on well.
Night-time doping test at Red Bull
The night before, however, did not start as usual for Evenepoel and Lipowitz. Doping inspectors turned up late in the evening. All eight riders from the Red Bull team were tested at around 10.00 pm, as a spokesperson confirmed.
However, this was not one of the controversial night-time checks that had recently been carried out on four-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar and fellow favourite Jonas Vingegaard, who had been forced to withdraw following a crash. Pogacar had been woken at five o’clock in the morning, and Vingegaard at two o’clock, before his crash.
“It’s still within reasonable limits. It was my turn at 10.30 pm. That’s better than 2 am. There were three or four of them on site. It went quite quickly; they handled it professionally,” team-mate Nico Denz told ARD.
Pogacar’s team-mate crashes his car
Before the start of the stage, Brandon McNulty, a team-mate of Pogacar and Cologne’s Nils Politt, encountered a different problem – or rather, an unpleasant encounter with a motorist. The American cyclist apparently collided with a car before the start of the 16th stage.
The driver had been tailgating him angrily, team boss Mauro Gianetti told Eurosport. “We don’t know why. He overtook Brandon, then stopped the car. And then, unfortunately, Brandon collided with the car,” he said. Ultimately, however, it wasn’t “a big deal”. “Everything’s fine. But it wasn’t very pleasant,” said the 62-year-old.
Will the Sprinters get one last chance?
After three stages in which the star riders in particular took centre stage in the battle for the top places in the general classification, the sprinters could well be back in the spotlight on Wednesday. Although there are just a few gentle climbs on the largely flat 174.7-kilometre route between Chambéry and Voiron, there could be a final bunch sprint towards the end – though perhaps a breakaway rider will be the one to celebrate victory.
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