Tour de France: How Germany's cycling hopeful Florian Lipowitz went from skiing to cycling

Thirty hours of training per week, living at an altitude of 2,200 meters in the Spanish Sierra Nevada mountains for three weeks: Preparing a cyclist for a tour is tough. "That's a lot for me," says Florian Lipowitz. "A day consists of sleeping, eating, training, and a massage," the 24-year-old adds in an interview with RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) a week and a half before the start of the Critérium du Dauphiné. The eight-day tour is considered the dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, which begins in early July.

Lipowitz will race the Dauphiné, which starts this Sunday, as captain of his Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team. He knows: "If we perform well there, then a start in the Tour could look pretty good." His team will only announce its lineup a few days before the world's most popular tour. For Lipowitz, it would be "a dream come true."

Born in Laichingen (Baden-Württemberg), he is Germany's rising star on the bike. Jan Ullrich, winner of the 1997 Tour de France, recently said of Lipowitz: "He is a very stable rider and is increasingly being introduced to the captain's role in smaller tours. He can handle the pressure and has great potential."

Lipowitz first attracted attention last fall at the Vuelta a España. Along with the Giro d'Italy and the Tour de France, the Vuelta is one of the three biggest races on the cycling calendar. Despite helping captain Primoz Roglic, who ultimately won the Vuelta, Lipowitz finished a strong seventh. A few months later, this time with Lipowitz as captain, he made it onto the podium with a second-place finish at Paris-Nice (seven stages). The German runner-up in the road race also won the junior rider classification.

On the podium at Paris-Nice: Florian Lipowitz (l.) next to winner Matteo Jorgensen and third-placed Thymen Arensman.

Source: IMAGO/Photo News

"It was a surprise for me," says Lipowitz, reflecting on his recent strong performances. "I made a huge leap last year. It's nice to know that you can ride at the front and shape a race. That's much more fun than crossing the finish line in a large group," he emphasizes.

As a child, Lipowitz never imagined that he would one day compete in cycling races. For a long time, the sport played at most a supporting role. He says he watched the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France as a child, but nothing more. As a teenager, Lipowitz initially put everything on the biathlon, even attending a ski boarding school and hoping to one day become a professional. "My dream was to be successful in biathlon." However, two serious knee injuries set him back. "Often, cycling was the only way to relax. And at some point, I toyed with the idea of ​​switching to cycling entirely."

Lipowitz doesn't regret this move. At Tirol KTM, he initially rode for a second-tier Continental team. It took "a while" before he could reproduce his training performances in races. "It definitely takes a year to really get into it. I knew the path would be difficult and that it would take a lot of luck to make it from a Continental team to a World Tour team." The jump was a success. Lipowitz has been riding for Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe since 2023.

And his first Tour de France in July? The opportunity seems within reach. A good placing at the Dauphiné could be his ticket. "Looking at the starting field, a top ten finish would be a great result," says Lipowitz about his goals for the Dauphiné. The 24-year-old will face rivals like Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel, who finished first, second, and third, respectively, in the 2024 Tour de France.

Will he ever achieve victory in one of the three grand tours? "That's a bit of an ambition," he admits. But: "A podium finish would be a mega-dream. But a lot of things have to come together for that. But it would be a lie if I said I wasn't working towards something like that."