The Tour de Romandie reached a dramatic climax today in Leysin as, in the final climb, race leader Juan Ayuso cracked and made way for a new leader. Florian Lipowitz of BORA - hansgrohe is having an absolute breakthrough week, and was extremely close to winning the summit finish.
“I knew from the start that I had good legs," the German said in words to Eurosport following the stage. He had shown signs of good form in the previous summit finish, but his ride today was by far the most impressive of his career. He launched the attack with 4 kilometers to go that ultimately dropped Ayuso, and then rode with Carlos Rodríguez in the following kilometers. He could not match Richard Carapaz' stage-winning attack, but followed Rodríguez - the new yellow jersey - and then sprinted to the line to catch the EF Education-EasyPost rider.
"I arrived just too late to catch up with him. But I'm super happy with today," he said. His sprint almost earned him the victory. “I stayed in the other guys' wheels as long as I could and just did my best. I am very happy with my performance. I never thought that I could climb with the best guys here! But from the start I had good legs. Even though I didn't catch Carapaz, I'm super happy with today's performance."
Nevertheless Lipowitz climbed to a third place in the overall classification, only 9 seconds behind Carapaz and 2 behind teammate Aleksandr Vlasov. It is a performance that will make way for a new role in the team; in a week where he has signed a new contract with the German squad.
🇨🇭#TDR2024 Grande Lipo! 👏 That was a close one: our youngster fought for the win in the queen stage and only missed it by a few meters. Thanks to a great team effort, we have 2 guys on the podium. Aleks is 🥈+ Florian 🥉in the GC ! One more stage to go... 📸 Sprintcycling
