Crucial Result for Tour de France GC Contender Florian Lipowitz

Saturday saw two very welcome milestones for the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, one for the squad itself, and one for its planned Tour de France co-leader Florian Lipowitz.

The German rider finished just ahead of teammate Giulio Pellizzari on stage 4 of the Tour of Slovenia, pulling off a rare one-two. Bahrain-Victorious rider Jakob Omrzel was 1:26 behind in third.

Lipowitz finished third in last year’s Tour de France. He was second overall in the 2025 Paris-Nice and also runner-up in this year’s Itzulia Basque Country and Tour de Romandie.

Given that quality, Saturday’s success is—surprisingly—his first victory since winning the GC of the Sibiu Cycling Tour in July 2024.

“I’m super happy to have a win. It took now two years,” he said. “I’m really proud how we were racing as a team.

He and Pellizzari attacked on the Vršič Pass, the highest mountain pass in Slovenia, and left the rest of the field behind. Lipowitz dropped his teammate near the top but they linked back up and raced into the finish together.

“Congrats to the team – they did a really good job today. I had a little bit more pressure on myself,” Lipowitz said. “In the end I felt good. We did our pace on the climb and having Giulio there was really impressive.”

The team has been on a bit of a spree at the race, with Laurence Pithie taking stages one and three in bunch sprints and netting second on stage two.

As noted by the team, Saturday’s victory is the 25th this year for the squad.

Winning so much so early is a mark of how much the level has improved.

“The German WorldTeam has now surpassed its number of wins from each of the previous three seasons, despite the campaign only reaching its halfway point,” it stated.

Lipowitz and Pellizzari are first and second overall heading into Sunday’s final stage, an undulating race to Novo Mesto.

Lipowitz and Remco Evenepoel will share team leadership at the Tour.