Cycling
Evenepoel vs Lipowitz: Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe captains compared
Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe will head into the 2026 Tour de France with two team leaders. It's an unusual move, made all the more intriguing by the contrasting styles and personalities of the riders.
Ever since Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe brought together the winners of the last two white jerseys, questions have swirled over how Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz will coexist at the Tour de France.
On one side is Evenepoel, a Grand Tour winner, Olympic champion and one of cycling's biggest stars. On the other is Lipowitz, less than a year younger but far less established, despite his breakthrough podium finish at last year's Tour.
Many assumed the German would see Evenepoel's arrival as a threat to his own ambitions. Instead, Lipowitz has embraced the partnership, challenging the traditional hierarchy that usually governs Grand Tour teams.
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Why having two team leaders can work for Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
It's a new era for Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe with two team leaders
© Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool
Although each has the ambition and talent to claim victory at the Tour de France, Lipowitz and Evenepoel will start the legendary race as equals for Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe.
It may seem like a bold move, but the team's Director of Coaching, John Wakefield, is confident that there will be no conflict as the two riders are like two sides of the same coin.
"Remco and Flo – they’re yin and yang. Fire and ice. Two opposites that don’t threaten each other, but set each other free," said Wakefield.
Team manager Ralph Denk is also convinced the dual leadership strategy will be a success and is happy for the two riders to battle it out on the road.
He told Flemish newspapers Het Laatste Nieuws and Het Nieuwsblad: "Eventually, there will come a day when one or the other feels better. Then they will have to fight it out between themselves on the road. But I am convinced that this can work."
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Evenepoel vs Lipowitz: A comparison of the co-captains
Formidable as a leading duo: Lipo and Evenepoel at Volta a Catalunya
© Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool
Remco Evenepoel
Florian Lipowitz
Year of birth 🗓️
2000
2000
Nickname 🎭
Cannibal of Schepdaal
Lipo or Lipoflitz
Nationality 🌍
Belgium
Germany
World Tour debut 🚴♂️
2019
2023
Best Tour de France finish 🇫🇷
3rd place (2024)
3rd place (2025)
Best Vuelta a España finish 🇪🇸
1st place (2022)
7th place (2024)
Remco and Flo... two opposites that don’t threaten each other
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Why Lipowitz thinks differently to many top riders
To fully understand the metaphor from Wakefield, you need to know how Lipowitz operates. And he does so differently from almost every other top general classification rider in the peloton.
If you bumped into him in a pedestrian zone, you wouldn’t immediately think you’d come across one of the scene’s rising stars. With his baby face, big eyes and slightly shy demeanour, he comes across more like someone who’s just finished his A-levels and is now asking himself: What’s next?
But if the next race with Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe happens to come along, Lipo transforms into a rider who attacks on the climbs when no one expects it. Yet beyond that, he remains the reserved young man who didn't take up the sport to gain attention or followers. He more or less stumbled into the spotlight.
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The reason all eyes are always on Evenepoel
The second half of the Tour de France duo has always been considered a brilliant time trialist, but since the 2024 Summer Games, he has become a national hero in Belgium. Mind you, this is a country that celebrates cyclists much like Brazil celebrates its footballers.
“It’s good that Remco is more in the media spotlight and I can take a bit of a back seat. It takes a lot of the pressure off me," Lipowitz says of his team-mate.
Wherever he appears – press conferences, media days, team presentations – Evenepoel attracts a flurry of flashbulbs like a magnet. A man with 1.3 million Instagram followers, his backstory reads like a fictional tale. Once a highly talented youth player with the Belgian football team Anderlecht, a fractured pelvis ended his football career and cycling became his new focus.
While all eyes are on the Belgian, Lipowitz can do what he does best: work in peace. Unobserved. In the shadow of the greatest lightning rod he could have wished for. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s Remco or me. If one of us is at the front of the Tour de France, we can be happy for the other and proud as a team."