Jan Ullrich expects great things from his compatriot: "Florian Lipowitz can compete at the front of the Tour de France in the future"

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has anything but low expectations of the Germany's biggest climbing talent Florian Lipowitz. The former biathlete broke through last year with podium at Tour de Romandie and later a 7th place at Vuelta a Espana while riding in support of winner Primoz Roglic.

"I believe that Florian Lipowitz can compete at the front of the Tour de France in the future. He's a young, very strong rider," Ullrich told SID. While there is no confrimation at the moment, it seems Lipowitz may well be heading to his debut Tour this summer.

And a quick look at the 24-year-old's season so far tells us that he may have just taken another step up with 2nd overall at Paris-Nice and 4th at Itzulia Basque Country. The latter result is especially valuable as the Basque race with steep walls shouldn't, at least on paper, exactly fit the "pure" climber such as Lipowitz. Well, what do those papers know...

"He has proven that he can ride at a good level for three weeks, is a very stable rider, and is increasingly being introduced to the captain's role in smaller tours. He can handle the pressure and has great potential," said Ullrich

Lipowitz may be the ray of hope of German cycling when it comes to general classifications, but there are quite a few other talents who could perform well in the mountains, possibly even tackling general classifications at one-week WT races. Winner of Giro stage and Ullrich's nephew Georg Steinhauser comes to mind. And the German champion Marco Brenner is on upward trajectory.

"It's difficult to win a Tour de France, we all know that," Ullrich reminds. At the same time he adds that these men are also world-class athletes. "They can all achieve respectable successes."

Although spring campaign was not what Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe had envisioned, Ullrich sees a positive trend. "They are on the right track. They are developing young Germans, but are also bringing seasoned champions like Primoz Roglic into the team to pass on their experience," Ullrich said. "The fact that such sponsors are entering cycling proves that cycling is booming."