“Most people thought I would have a biathlon career" - Like Roglic, Lipowitz was destined for winter sports before cycling

Like Primoz Roglic before him, Florian Lipowitz’s path to the WorldTour didn’t begin on tarmac. It began on snow.

“I started biathlon when I was seven or eight after my brother Philipp had first got into it because we had a biathlon arena quite close to our home,” Lipowitz told Rouleur. Raised in the Swabian Alps in south-west Germany, the winter sports route seemed natural, until nature intervened. “But we didn’t have too much snow, so when I was 14 and my brother was 15, we went to boarding school in Austria.”

That “boarding school” was no ordinary institution, it was the elite Stams Ski High School in Tirol, the same academy that has produced more Olympic and world champions than anywhere else in winter sport. The Lipowitz brothers thrived. Florian routinely placed in the top ten nationally, and Philipp would go on to become junior world champion in 2021.

“We wanted to be pro and go to World Cups, and that was the place to be,” said Florian. “Most people thought I would have a biathlon career.”

But a string of injuries began to derail that path, first a knee issue, then a torn ACL sustained during a kite surfing holiday. The dreams of snow began to fade. He shifted to cycling.

His first races came in early 2020 at the one day Trofej Umag and Poreč classics in Croatia. “It was super dangerous with a lot of crashes, and I fell twice at Umag. It was horrible,” he recalled. “And then a week later Covid started and I didn’t have any races. I really didn’t know if I had made the right decision, and I was thinking that I shouldn’t have changed from biathlon.”

Everything changed in 2021. At just 20 years old, Lipowitz finished as the third-best young rider at the Tour of the Alps, his tenth bike race. “It was my first really good result and the first time I really enjoyed racing, because U23 races were just super stressful.”

Now 24, he rides for Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe and is building steadily toward general classification leadership. “I wouldn’t say I’m a pure climber because I’m just a bit too heavy,” he said, citing his 68kg weight. “But I'm good at everything, can do quite good TTs, have good numbers on the flat, and can do steep climbs, even though my preference is 5–7% climbs.”

His ambitions are clear. “My goal is definitely to be a GC rider, racing for the podium in one-week stage races, and then the next step will be to be a co-leader in Grand Tours.”

His experience supporting Primoz Roglic at the Vuelta a España was transformative. “I’ve never before spent so much time on a bike!” he laughed. “Physically I wasn’t on the limit so much, but mentally it was exhausting.”

Reserved and media-shy, Lipowitz is still adjusting to the increasing attention. “I’m a guy who doesn’t really like to be in the spotlight, and the team is doing a good job of handling the media,” he said. “I don’t know how successful I will be in the future, but I accept there will be more attention on me. I’m learning to deal with that.”

That recognition is already beginning. “There are definitely more people in the peloton who know me now and there are eyes on me in the race and even before races,” he said. “When you enter the WorldTour without any results you have some doubts if you belong there, and people ask the same question, but now I’ve proven myself and to others that I can ride there.”