"The podium is almost set already, so you have to take other opportunities" - Florian Lipowitz uses breakaway to gain time on Pogacar, Vingegaard & Evenepoel at Dauphine

Coming into the 2025 Criterium du Dauphiné as the big GC hope of the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team, Florian Lipowitz has made a move on stage 3, gaining time on the main Maillot Jaune contenders with a strong performance in the breakaway.

"It was a risk," admits Lipowitz in his post-stage interview after crossing the line in 4th, rising to 4th in the general classification in the process. "It was planned to put Maxim van Gils in the break — he really wanted to go for the stage. But somehow I found myself in the front. The break was super big, and everyone was committed to going for the win. I’m happy it worked out."

As mentioned, Lipowitz gained time in the GC on the likes of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel through this raid. Still, the young German isn't too optimistic about his hopes of placing on the final podium. "I don’t really look to them because, yeah, they’re just on another level. I need to focus on the top 10. We’ll see how the next stages go," he explains. "I’m looking at GC, but in a break like this, you go for the win. The GC podium is almost set already, so you have to take other opportunities... It’s nice to have this buffer, but we take it day by day."