After his surprise breakthrough last year, Florian Lipowitz is deliberately making a late, clearly structured start to the 2026 season: Instead of building up pressure early on, his racing programme will not begin until the end of March. With Remco Evenepoel, he wants to develop his form and timing in a targeted manner towards the 2026 Tour de France - step by step, without haste.
By the standards of modern cycling, Florian Lipowitz is not a starving rider. Information on his body weight is now considered a non-public secret of success in the peloton. 67 to 68 kilograms is an unconfirmed estimate for the former biathlete - not much for a man 1.81 metres tall. And even if Lipowitz likes to practise a few powerful pole thrusts as a cross-country skier on the local trails at his home in Seefeld in Tyrol over the turn of the year and thus strengthen his upper body - his shoulders are not particularly broad. Yet they can hardly be broad enough to shoulder the expectations of cycling fans in a nation of 80 million inhabitants like Germany. After the 25-year-old Swabian thrilled cycling fans last July with his riding style and ultimately third place overall in the Tour de France, his life has certainly changed. He is now who. He has a face that is recognised more often. And he has raised expectations. "Now, with Florian Lipowitz, we once again have someone who has stood on the Tour podium for Germany. I hope that this will create hype again, if it hasn't already happened," says his team-mate Nico Denz, for example.
New contract, higher market value
Lipowitz himself has not really changed - at least that's how it seems. Even if he is now better known and has a different market value. The arrogance that many a professional cyclist from Team Telekom and their entourage exuded at the time of the great cycling hype in Germany seems alien to the young man from the Swabian Alb. Nevertheless, he is now a figurehead - for German cycling and for his Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team. Team boss Ralph Denk proudly announced in December that they had extended the contract with the hope of German cycling. Rumours that the rising star among the tour specialists could switch to the future German-licensed team Lidl-Trek were not confirmed. Denk did not reveal how long the contract would last or how much the contract would be worth. Denk described the new salary as "normal for the market".
Delight at the enthusiasm of the fans
Lipowitz is not necessarily the man for the big stage, he comes across as a modest worker, even when it comes to his contribution to new cycling enthusiasm at home. "On the one hand, it was of course super cool to have so many fans and to see what it has done in Germany," he said at the team's media day in Mallorca at the end of the year. But of course he also learnt that the love of the fans, the attention, the additional appointments, the newly sparked love for cycling and the currently most successful athlete at home can also be overwhelming at times. "On the other hand, it was definitely a new situation for me. I first had to come to terms with it a bit. In the end, it was probably also the reason why I ended the season early, because my body was simply tired," added Lipowitz. Always having to sign autographs when the others are putting their feet up or lying on the massage bench - that's exhausting. For some, more than three weeks of racing through the Pyrenees and the Alps.
Pressure that can make you ill
And just how much pressure and expectations can weigh a person down and make them ill - Florian Lipowitz experienced this in his own family. His brother Philipp, who is one year older than him, was biathlon world junior champion in 2021. His success made him ill - he reported suicidal thoughts due to depression to the Südwestpresse newspaper. "I'm glad I survived that," he told the local regional newspaper. The older brother said that he had put himself under "extreme pressure" in terms of sporting success. At home in Laichingen, where father Marc runs a company for security technology and alarm systems, he doesn't want to experience anything like that again. He therefore keeps a close eye on what happens to his younger son and avoids the press as much as possible. At the end of 2025, Denk also emphasised that he had been reluctant to answer media enquiries about his high-flyer.
A break was needed after the tour
So far, the junior seems to be coping well with the success. There was great enthusiasm at the side of the track at the Deutschland Tour, around three weeks after the spectacular rides in France. Not much happened after that. He didn't finish the two one-day races in Canada in September and then cancelled his planned start at the Tour of Lombardy. He didn't have to hide under a camouflage cap now, Lipowitz told us about the consequences of his new popularity, "but I just realised that it was definitely a different kind of stress for my body. I actually needed more of a break after the tour." Fans, media, sponsors - everyone wants more when an athlete becomes famous. "It was a change. But I think I'll find my way into it," said Lipowitz at the team meeting in his always calm manner.
A successor for Ullich & Klöden?
Just as his body has become accustomed to riding fast up long mountains, his head and body should also adapt to the increased popularity and growing expectations. The Tour bronze medallist seems to approach the challenges in a very pragmatic and grounded way. But his strong performances last summer have whetted his appetite for more. For around two decades, since the days of Jan Ullrich and Andreas Klöden, no German has finished so high up in the overall classification of the world's most important cycling race. Klöden was the last German to finish on the podium for the overall best on the Champs-Élysées in 2006 in second place.
Fewer races, less stress
The lesson from 2025 for the future: fewer races, less stress, less attention. We vaguely remember how Jan Ullrich's often poor early form became a national affair two decades ago, his first season starts with visible excess weight dominating the headlines. One thing is certain: Florian Lipowitz will start the new season late. Paris-Nice, where he got off to a strong start in 2025 with second place after two short appearances at the beginning of February, is not on his race programme for 2026, nor is the Tour of the Basque Country, which he finished fourth in April 2025.
First highlights: Tour of Catalonia and Tour de Romandie
On 29 January, Lipowitz will start in the Trofeo Ses Salines team time trial as part of the Mallorca Challenge for the first time in 2026 - a first test for this stage, which will also be part of the programme at the upcoming Tour for the first time since 2019 after a long break. On 4 July, on the very first stage, the pros in Barcelona will have to harmonise as a team in the team time trial at the highest level - in a competition that last kicked off the Tour in 1971.
The first real test for Lipowitz will be the Tour of Catalonia, which will feature climbs in the Pyrenees from 23 to 29 March 2026. This will be followed by the Tour de Romandie at the end of April, the only other race on his calendar so far. Whether he will ride the Tour Auvergne-Rhones Alpes (the future name of the Tour of the Dauphiné) shortly before the Tour de France, as he did last year, has not yet been decided. One-day races are not on the programme in the first half of the season. In 2026, he will also only be competing in one three-week stage race - the Tour de France, together with Belgian cycling star Remco Evenepoel as the leader of the team, with the aim of getting at least one of them onto the podium in Paris.
Fancy a World Cup start in Canada
Lipowitz is hoping to start at the World Championships in Canada and the Tour of Lombardy next autumn. He wants to continue on his path in a calm and straightforward manner. "I think I'll probably spend a bit more time at altitude this year. I don't actually want to change my weight as much as I did this year. I think we were on the right track there," says Lipowitz at the turn of the year. "And I think that I can certainly improve one or two things in the time trial. We'll also do some more tests in the wind tunnel." His new team-mate Remco Evenepoel is likely to feel that he is getting closer to the German of the same age in his specialised discipline of the individual time trial, in which he is world champion and Olympic champion. Lipowitz has already looked stronger than his new colleague on the climbs recently, although he was still suffering from the consequences of a serious training accident in the 2025 season, which he suffered at the end of 2024. For the time being, Belgium's cycling star and Germany's new hope should go into the next Tour de France on 8 July 2026 as equal leaders. In any case, there are those who do not want to praise last year's high-flyer to the skies. Compatriot Emanuel Buchmann thrilled the fans at the 2019 Tour de France, was right at the front until the end, finishing just 1:56 minutes behind Tour winner Egan Bernal and unfortunately only came fourth overall. However, Buchmann only inspired fans for one summer - he was never able to repeat this performance. A seventh place at the Giro in 2022 was the only other top result. While Buchmann from Ravensburg is more of a pure climber, Lipowitz, who hails from the Swabian Alb, is the better all-rounder - with considerable skills in the battle against the clock. Nevertheless, he must first confirm his successes in 2025.
Two leaders, different characters
Self-promotion? Social media? Lipowitz leaves that to others. "Well, I'll just stay the way I am. I don't think I need to change much. Maybe it's also good to have someone in the team now who is happy to do it." He is referring to Evenepoel, who is a master of the grand entrance and exudes a different self-confidence than the reserved Lipowitz. What the two have in common: Evenepoel, the former Belgian youth international footballer, and the former junior biathlete Lipowitz, are both career changers in top-level cycling. Unlike the Belgian, who was considered a cycling prodigy and future Tour winner at the age of 18 and celebrated professional victories at World Tour level as a teenager, Lipowitz had to work hard for his first professional contract, convincing doubters before he was allowed to show his great potential. This is not the only reason why the two are an unlikely duo.
"I'm a team player, I think he is too," Lipowitz told German journalists at the media day in Mallorca last December. Ahead of the joint tour appearance, Lipowitz sees less rivalry than opportunities for the dual leadership: "On the one hand, it takes the pressure off, because not one person alone has all the pressure from outside or from the team to perform on the tour. Secondly, a Pogačar or a Jonas (Vingegaard) will be super hard to beat. With a double lead-out, you have more options and more opportunities to shape the race."
"No bad blood"
The latter, i.e. the dual leadership, did not really work out at Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe last year, when Primož Roglič and Lipowitz did not complement each other in terms of teamwork at the Tour de France. But although the weakening captain hardly supported his strong junior partner, Lipowitz emphasised: "I have a good relationship with Primož Roglič. In the end, we achieved what we wanted to achieve. I don't think there's any bad blood."
Meanwhile, Lipowitz is quietly working on his weaknesses. He wants to improve his performance on climbs of up to five minutes and in the peak efforts for attacks on the mountain. "I still have enough potential to improve," he believes. In the end, the true hierarchy is determined out on the road, not in strategy discussions behind the scenes. The patient, hard-working and long-suffering Lipowitz has always reached his goal so far.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
