Florian Lipowitz, Remco Evenepoel, and Primoz Roglic are the three key riders of Red-Bull Bora Hansgrohe: two young talents eager to establish themselves and an experienced rider who can perfectly calculate and interpret races.

The German team for the next year will have three champions to lead the three grand tours, but deciding who will go to the Tour de France and who will ride the Vuelta and Giro will not be easy at all. According to the new sports director Zak Dempster, the German squad will not make a decision until the stages of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España are announced, as they need to understand the routes and opportunities.

Certainly, both Evenepoel and Lipowitz want to race the Tour, because it is the most important race in the world, but they also know they must offer a concrete possibility of reaching the final podium, even though both dream of winning. Ralph Denk, CEO of Red Bull - Bora Hansgrohe, has built his team piece by piece and investing more each year: his main goal is to win the Tour de France, following Jai Hindley's Giro d'Italia victory and Roglic's Vuelta a España win.

The big dilemma within the team is how to divide roles without disrupting the balance, because when you have three important leaders, everything must be perfectly calibrated. Lipowitz won the white jersey for best young rider at his Tour de France debut this year and stood on the third step of the podium. It's also worth noting that Lipowitz is German and rides for a German team, and in the mountain stages of the Grande Boucle, such as the twelfth stage finishing at Hautacam, he finished third behind Pogacar and just seconds from an experienced climber like Vingegaard. Also in the stage with the uphill finish at La Plagne, won by Arensman, the rider from Laichingen immediately finished behind Vingegaard and Pogacar. Last week, a first team meeting was held in Fuschl, Austria, with all new signings, including Evenepoel and other newcomers. Details are not yet available, but Lipowitz explained in the Tourfunk podcast that he has already received positive signals from his team. "The team is absolutely not against sending me to the Tour - the German said - But to do this, I must stay healthy and everything must go well". Then there's the mandatory coexistence with Evenepoel, which must be managed perfectly, but Lipowitz does not see this as an obstacle at all.

"A shared leadership with Evenepoel is certainly a possible path we can take. Ultimately, it doesn't depend on me. I think we will find a good solution to ensure that no rider is disadvantaged in any way. At the moment, a second participation in the Giro d'Italia after 2024 is not under discussion."

So, considering that the team is absolutely seeking victory and taking into account the few time trial kilometers and mountain stages of the Tour, it seems that Lipowitz is the most suitable to compete for the yellow jersey, while Remco and Roglic would be left with the Giro and Vuelta.

The Slovenian, who is 36 years old, has already won four editions of the Spanish race, collecting 15 stage victories, while he obtained a Giro victory in 2023 and a third place in 2019, not to mention a second place at the Tour in 2020.

For Evenepoel, the situation is completely different: the Belgian arrived at Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe with the goal of winning the Tour and the team is offering him maximum support in terms of personnel, materials, and nutrition, but to try to win, he must have a suitable route, and the 2026 Tour de France was certainly not designed for a rider like Evenepoel. Like Lipowitz at his Tour debut, the Belgian also finished third and wore the white jersey, but this year he certainly did not show his best version. In November, the Giro route will be revealed, on December 17th we'll discover the Vuelta, and it's not excluded that the two races might be making some adjustments to the route to offer a track that is enticing for the two-time Olympic champion.