The answer to Red Bull's leadership dilemma? Lidl-Trek reportedly planning audacious transfer swoop for Florian Lipowitz

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe's 2026 roster is shaping up to be almost too strong for its own good. Between Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Giulio Pellizzari, Jai Hindley, Dani Martinez and Aleksandr Vlasov, deciding who leads where is already a nightmare jigsaw for the team. But now, according to Het Laatste Nieuws, one of those pieces may not stay in the box for long.

The Belgian outlet reports that Lidl-Trek are exploring an audacious move to sign Lipowitz, the breakout Grand Tour climber who finished third at the 2025 Tour de France, best of the rest behind Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. WielerFlits adds that sources close to the rider insist he remains under contract until the end of 2026 — but that hasn’t stopped the Lidl-Trek project from sounding out the possibility.

Lidl-Trek’s interest makes perfect strategic sense. Since Lidl officially became the majority shareholder of the team in late 2025, the structure has shifted decisively towards a German-led project — with Trek remaining a significant co-owner, but Lidl now holding controlling stake.

That investment has already transformed results. The team climbed from 12th in the UCI Teams Ranking in 2022 to 5th in 2023, 4th in 2024 and an impressive 2nd in 2025. HLN also report that the squad are expected to unveil two additional co-sponsors in the near future, further reinforcing their ambitions to become the global powerhouse of the next decade. In that context, Florian Lipowitz — currently Germany’s strongest GC rider — fits their recruitment philosophy perfectly.

It’s a legitimate question given how stacked the German team’s stage-race roster has become. With riders like Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe now building their entire Tour de France blueprint around Remco Evenepoel, still accommodating Primoz Roglic at a high level, and juggling the ambitions of Jai Hindley, Dani Martinez and Aleksandr Vlasov, space for clear leadership already feels limited.

The emergence of Giulio Pellizzari complicates the picture further, and Florian Lipowitz — fresh from taking the white jersey and finishing on the podium in Paris — has earned the right to expect major opportunities of his own.

When a single squad contains that many riders capable of leading Grand Tour campaigns, even three three-week races aren’t enough to keep everyone satisfied. In that sense, Lipowitz moving to a project prepared to hand him unambiguous responsibility could, paradoxically, ease the internal congestion at Red Bull while giving him the platform his trajectory deserves. It’s speculation at this stage, but it’s why the rumour carries weight: his departure might strengthen Lidl-Trek while simultaneously solving one of Red Bull’s most delicate selection puzzles.

For now, the only concrete fact comes via WielerFlits: Lipowitz is tied to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe until the end of 2026, and there’s no indication the team want to let him go.

But as HLN’s reporting makes clear, Lidl-Trek’s ambitions are growing by the month — and their financial firepower has grown with them. If they decide Lipowitz is the rider to anchor their next phase, they may well test just how ironclad that contract really is.