Normally, if a rider sits in the third place of the general classification at the Tour de France, their team will do everything to protect that. The value of standing on the podium when the race reaches its conclusion in Paris is worth it – everyone in professional bike racing would likely agree with this sentiment. Apart from, it seems, the team of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

Ahead of stage 19, Florian Lipowitz’s third place standing overall in the 2025 Tour hung in the balance. He lost time to a fourth-place Oscar Onley when he was dropped on the Col de la Loze on Thursday and the gap between him and the Picnic-PostNL rider was reduced to just over 20 seconds. Friday’s stage should have been all about maintaining that gap, or increasing it – and certainly not making the same mistakes as the day before when Lipowitz went on an early attack then spectacularly blew up on the final climb.

What transpired, however, on stage 19’s shortened route, was Lipowitz’s teammate, Primož Roglič – who should have been a key support rider for him on this stage – attacking solo in the opening phase of the race, trying to gain a stage win himself. The gap was stabilised, then the time fell away quickly when the general classification group was racing behind. It became a suicide mission for the 35-year-old who was eventually caught and then went straight out of the back of the group, losing 13 minutes. Lipowitz was left alone and isolated defending his GC podium on a climb where having another teammate with him could have made all the difference.

“Primož wanted to win the stage today, and also yesterday, and that’s why he wanted to go deep and as fast as possible on the first climb and this is what he did,” Enrico Gasparotto, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director commented after the stage to La Plagne. Lipowitz had eventually defended third place due to Onley dropping from the back of the GC group.

Image: ASO

“Obviously we could see that UAE wanted to go for the stage and the win because they kept on pulling hard, I only thought at the end of the long descent from Cormet de Roselend that they could slow down and they let him [Roglič] go, maybe due to some Slovenian connections and Pogi decides to give Primož the chance, because everyone of UAE today on the last climb was also struggling. When Primož had 30-35 seconds they pulled him back, and that was game over for Primož to try to win the stage. Then we switched to the fight for the white jersey with Lipo.”

In many ways, Red Bull were fortunate on stage 19 that Lipowitz had the legs to follow the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar on the final climb. If he had been in trouble, he would have been without teammates to help him. Even if he felt good, Red Bull could have had two cards to play in the final and potentially won the stage that way. It wasn’t the first time that the German team’s tactics have been called into question this race – there was also confusion over Lipowitz’s attack on Thursday which subsequently led to him conceding time to Onley.

“I reviewed the entire stage of yesterday 100 times last night. Normally I plan quite well with tactics but yesterday was a good f*ck up. We cannot say it wasn’t because we lost a lot in the last three kilometres,” Gasparotto admitted candidly. 

“What surprised us was the attack of Lipo which was never planned. What do you do? You cannot stop him and that’s why it was like it was.”

The Italian sports director appeared to blame his rider for the questionable tactical decisions of Red Bull in the last two stages: “Lipowitz is a super young rider, super motivated, as you could also see in the first part of the Tour de France, a couple of times he moved based on instinct and emotions and at the end it’s what happened yesterday and he paid the price big time for this yesterday,” he commented. 

“That was the discussion this morning, trying to explain to him what happens in Grand Tours in the third week and today I think he learned a lesson and I am happy about that. I think the faster the young kids learn, the better they are, and the earlier they get success and Lipo deserves that because he’s such a strong rider there’s no doubt about that.”

Does the problem at Red Bull lie with the reality of Primož Roglič being a former Grand Tour champion who does not want to sacrifice his race for the podium finish of a teammate? Can Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe really control what the Slovenian rider does?

“Primož is a champion, has his own opinion a lot of the time in many things and he has his own big experience which I respect. We did talk about what to do and how to do it, but I also know that Primož is 36-years-old, so he’s happy to fight for this stage, because it’s something that in his last two Tours with Visma they were not able to bring him to that point. I think I have had Primož under control,” Gasparotto responded.

Whatever the reason for their tactical choices on the final two Alpine stages of this year’s Tour de France, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have, by the skin of their teeth, managed to hold onto Lipowitz’s third place on the general classification. There are still two stages to go until the race reaches a long-awaited conclusion in Paris, and the German squad will simply be hoping they can hold it together until then. If they don’t, it could be a very sour end to this Tour de France for Red Bull.

Cover image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com