{"id":2012901,"date":"2026-06-26T12:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2012901"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:13:21","slug":"why-red-bull-is-betting-two-tour-de-france-leaders-are-better-than-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2012901","title":{"rendered":"Why Red Bull Is Betting Two Tour de France Leaders Are Better Than One"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/lipowitz-evenepoel-2026.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-wrap fp-contentTarget\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\">\n<div class=\"fp-remove flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Published June 26, 2026 06:13AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has a different idea on how to beat Tadej Poga\u010dar at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n<p>Bring two leaders instead of one.<\/p>\n<p>The German squad confirmed Friday that Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz will share leadership at the 2026 Tour de France, making it the only super team openly starting with two GC leaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Tour is no longer won by an exceptional rider alone, but by an exceptional team,\u201d chief of sport Zak Dempster said. \u201cTheir different strengths give us tactical options that could prove decisive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UAE has Isaac del Toro, Visma brings Matteo Jorgenson and Decathlon is all-in for Paul Seixas, and everyone knows who those teams are riding for if the <em>maillot jaune<\/em> is on the line.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull\u2019s double-leader gamble isn\u2019t just about yellow.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard remain the men to beat, the battle for the top-3 has never been more crowded.<\/p>\n<p>Seixas, Del Toro and Juan Ayuso are all coming for the podium.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Red Bull is just making sure it has two cards to play on all fronts.<\/p>\n<h2>Red Bull going all-in for podium run<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_990068\" class=\"pom-image-wrap photo-alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Evenepoel Lipowitz Tour de France 2026 Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"490\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-990068\" src=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2250476094-720x490.jpg?width=1920&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover\"><figcaption class=\"pom-caption\"><span class=\"article__caption\">Lipowitz and Evenepoel start as co-leaders. <\/span> (Photo: Clara Margais\/picture alliance via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Red Bull is the only Tour favorite openly giving two riders the same shot at the GC.<\/p>\n<p>That can get messy in a hurry. Both hit third in their respective Tour debuts, and want to at least go that far in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Evenepoel arrives under enormous pressure after his blockbuster transfer to Red Bull and hasn\u2019t raced since April, going all-in on altitude camps to prep for July.<\/p>\n<p>Lipowitz, meanwhile, just keeps delivering, with a string of WorldTour podiums and two stage wins and the GC at the Tour of Slovenia last week.<\/p>\n<p>The question is what happens if both are still in the hunt in the Alps.<\/p>\n<p>Ralph Denk already lit the fuse this week by suggesting the team will let the road decide the hierarchy.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull arrives with one of the deepest teams in the race, including Jai Hindley, a former Giro winner.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mattia Cattaneo, Maxim Van Gils, Jan Tratnik, Nico Denz, and Tim van Dijke bring climbing support and power for the flats.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull left its sprinters Jordi Meeus and Danny Van Poppel at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith this team we have an answer to almost every possible scenario,\u201d said DS Patxi Vila.<\/p>\n<p>After spending millions to build out the team, Red Bull isn\u2019t leaving anything on the table. It\u2019s podium or bust.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\">\n<div class=\"fp-remove flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Published June 26, 2026 06:13AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tour-de-france-2026-red-bull-evenepoel-lipowitz\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/lipowitz-evenepoel-2026.jpg&#8221;] Andrew Hood Published June 26, 2026 06:13AM Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has a different idea on how to beat Tadej Poga\u010dar at the Tour de France. Bring two leaders instead of one. The German squad confirmed Friday that Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz will share leadership at the 2026 Tour de France, making it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2012901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2012901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2012901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2012901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2012901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}