Florian Lipowitz may not have been able to challenge Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de Romandie, but just as the UAE Emirates-XRG rider was, as usual, on a level of his own, so too was the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe rider who was clearly the best of the rest.
Lipowitz finished the six days of racing by snaring another stage runner-up spot, as while he may have been facing off against the fiercely in-form world champion, he was still quite prepared to throw down the gauntlet through the final kilometres of racing at the 2026 Tour de Romandie.
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No one else could follow. Still Pogačar was clearly unshakeable and pulled out a three second gap with the sprint to the line but the rest of his Tour de Romandie GC rivals just drifted further behind.
That meant after the final uphill finish to Leysin, Lipowitz walked away with three runner-up stage positions and second overall, just 42 seconds behind Pogačar and with a gap of more than two minutes to third-placed Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious).
“In the end, I can be really happy and proud of how this week went. The team gave me huge support, and I think we raced really well,” Lipowitz said. “I was really happy to be there with Tadej and to have the chance to compete against him. Congrats to him for another win. I’m still super proud of how we raced today.”