“I wanted to go on holiday in peace, Florian to the Tour” - Giulio Pellizzari explains selfless gesture as Lipowitz turns Slovenia into Tour de France warning

Florian Lipowitz left the Tour of Slovenia with two wins in two days, the overall title and fresh momentum before the Tour de France. Before his final-stage attack in Novo mesto, though, his race had already turned on a striking exchange with Giulio Pellizzari in Kranjska Gora.

Pellizzari caught Lipowitz on the descent from Vrsic and the pair reached the finish together, but the Italian pushed the queen-stage win towards his Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team-mate.

Lipowitz had gone almost two years without a victory, while Pellizzari had won at the Tour of the Alps the previous month.

The next day, Lipowitz attacked again on Trska Gora, won the final stage, sealed the overall and left Slovenia with Red Bull’s Tour de France build-up looking far sharper than it had at the start of the week.

Pellizzari said after the Kranjska Gora finish that the decision had been clear once the two Red Bull riders arrived together. Lipowitz had opened the gap near the top of Vrsic before taking the descent carefully, only for Pellizzari to rejoin him before the run-in to the line.

“I told him that he deserved the victory. He had not won for a good two years, while I last managed to do it last month at the Tour of the Alps,” Pellizzari said in conversation with TV Slovenija. “Already a month ago, I hinted that I would like it if he won. He did tell me that I had to win, but in the end I really insisted that the victory should be his. Today he was stronger. I hope this will lift his morale for tomorrow’s stage and for the Tour de France.”

Lipowitz gave that decision an immediate follow-up on the final stage to Novo mesto. Rather than simply defend the leader’s jersey, he attacked on Trska Gora, took the final mountain points of the race and soloed to another win.

For Pellizzari, the hand-in-hand finish was also shaped by the descent into Kranjska Gora. Jakob Omrzel had been closing from behind, but Red Bull still had two riders at the front and no need to turn the finale into a gamble.

“I wanted to go on holiday in peace, and Florian to the Tour. That is why we preferred not to take risks, but in the finale we still had the chance to put the hammer down, because there were two of us,” Pellizzari said.

The queen-stage exchange capped a race Red Bull had already shaped from several directions. Laurence Pithie won stage 1 and stage 3, Lipowitz and Pellizzari took control in the mountains, and Jan Tratnik helped shut down Fausto Masnada’s final-stage move before Lipowitz attacked again.

Pellizzari framed the moment as part of the team’s plan rather than a lost personal chance. “Today we raced for Lipo. In both roles you have to be strong enough to last, but essentially it is similar. Once you are the leader, another time you help someone else,” he said.

The finish in Kranjska Gora carried the clearest image of that balance. Pellizzari had the chance to take the stage himself, Lipowitz tried to push it his way, and the Italian sent it back towards a team-mate chasing his first win since July 2024.

Lipowitz then backed up that queen-stage victory by winning again in Novo mesto, leaving the race with the overall title, two stage wins and a Red Bull team already showing several routes to victory before the Tour de France.