“What happens if Lipowitz punctures? Does Remco wait?” - Red Bull leadership dynamic could face immediate Tour de France test in Stage 1 team time trial

Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe arrive at the 2026 Tour de France with two leaders and an opening stage that leaves little room for ambiguity. Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz have both been given general classification status for Barcelona, where the race begins with a 19.6km team time trial rather than a road stage.

It is not an empty co-leadership label. Lipowitz finished third overall and won the white jersey on his Tour debut in 2025, having already marked himself out as one of the season’s emerging GC riders with podiums at Paris-Nice and the Dauphine. Evenepoel brings a very different kind of authority: Olympic and world time trial champion, stage winner in last year’s Tour time trial in Caen, and the obvious Red Bull candidate if yellow is available against the clock.

The team result will be taken from the first rider across the line, while every rider’s own finishing time counts towards the general classification. For Red Bull, stage 1 lands straight on the fault line between Evenepoel’s time trial power and Lipowitz’s Tour podium status.

On the For the Love of Cycling podcast, Peter Kennaugh, a former Team Sky rider who helped Chris Froome win the 2013 Tour de France, raised the prospect of dual leadership becoming complicated immediately. “Teams that have joint leaders, like Lipowitz and Remco, could start attacking each other,” said Kennaugh.

Long-time Tour de France commentator Ned Boulting pointed to the difference between Evenepoel and Lipowitz against the clock. Lipowitz has proved he can ride a strong time trial within a three-week race, but Evenepoel’s pedigree in the discipline sits on another level.

“Remco, as an individual, is so much better than Lipowitz, who does a very good time trial, I’m sure,” said Boulting. “But Remco is so much better that there is the danger he just rides off his wheel. With Evenepoel’s status, he’s probably not at the same level as Vingegaard and Pogacar, and he’s never worn the yellow jersey. This is an opportunity for him, isn’t it? Because if Red Bull were to win stage one and Remco took the jersey, that takes a massive amount of pressure straight off.”

Evenepoel has already shown he can beat Tadej Pogacar in a Tour time trial, but the yellow jersey has still never been his. Barcelona gives him a cleaner shot than most days in this race: short, controlled, aerodynamic, and decided before the first mountain battle has even begun.

Lipowitz enters that same stage with different stakes. His 2025 Tour podium means Red Bull cannot treat him simply as a support rider for Evenepoel’s opening-day chance. A few seconds lost in a time trial can follow a GC rider deep into the race, especially when the early hierarchy is being set around Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and the rest of the podium contenders.

Former road world champion and Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner Lizzie Deignan put the tension into the simplest possible race scenario. “What happens if Lipowitz punctures?” asked Deignan. “Does he wait?”

Boulting’s reply was immediate. “Remco’s not waiting.”

A yellow jersey ride for Evenepoel would leave little room for hesitation. Slowing for Lipowitz could cost Red Bull the stage and the maillot jaune; continuing without him could leave their 2025 Tour podium finisher chasing time from the opening day.

Team time trials are often sold as displays of unity. Red Bull start this one with two leaders, two different Tour ambitions and a first-stage format that rewards the fastest rider across the line rather than the neatest compromise.