On the fifth and final stage, when reaching the mountain in Leysin, Lipowitz attacked several times in the final climb, which was more than 14 kilometers long, but was unable to shake off Pogačar. At the end of the 178.2 kilometers, Pogačar, who was starting in western Switzerland for the first time, celebrated his fourth stage victory.
Florian Lipowitz’s shape curve is correct
“There was nothing left to lose in the last five kilometers. That’s why I attacked and was alone with Pogi. Then I tried everything in the sprint,” said Lipowitz. “I can be very happy and proud of how the week went.” Pogačar himself was praised for his performance: “It was a tough day. Florian attacked first and did a really good job. He started the sprint quite early and it was a fight to the finish line.”
In the overall tally, Lipowitz was 42 seconds behind Pogačar. Lipowitz beat the third-placed French mountain specialist Lenny Martinez by 2:02 minutes. After third place in the Tour of Catalonia and second place in the Basque Country, the Red Bull professional finished the third tour this year on the podium.
Despite the inferiority to Pogačar, Lipowitz showed clear improvement with a view to the tour. In the spring he was still struggling with infections and, despite good placings, his form was not yet where he wanted to be. In French-speaking Switzerland, Lipowitz seemed much more stable.
With an eye on the summer, Lipowitz is now back to training. From mid-May we head to the heights of the Sierra Nevada for almost three weeks. In the winter, Lipowitz described this as the most important camp. After that, the Tour of Slovenia from June 17th to 21st will be just one more race before the Tour de France, which begins in Barcelona on July 4th.
On the tour, Lipowitz is actually supposed to share the captaincy role with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel. So far, however, the Belgian’s performance has raised doubts as to whether he can keep up with Lipowitz and the other favorites on the mountain. There are five mountain finishes on the program for the Tour of France.
