{"id":292389,"date":"2025-07-26T04:34:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T04:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292389\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T04:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T04:34:22","slug":"weve-had-primoz-roglic-under-control-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe-set-for-tour-de-france-podium-despite-questionable-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292389\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We’ve had Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d under control’ – Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe set for Tour de France podium despite questionable tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 Tour de France<\/a> started with Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d<\/a> repeatedly insisting that \u201cI don\u2019t really care<\/a>.\u201d It ends with the Tour de France asking: what has Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d been playing at?<\/p>\n

Notably weary<\/a> of seemingly everything and potentially readying his exit from both Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe<\/a> and the sport, the 35-year-old still kept himself in the hunt for the third and final podium spot after decent performances in the Pyrenees. And then after Mont Ventoux stage on stage 16, he moved himself up to fifth overall, just 2:39 seconds off a podium spot. Not bad for a man who apparently wasn\u2019t really bothered.<\/p>\n

The man in third, however, was his teammate Florian Lipowitz<\/a>. Usually what would happen in such a scenario is that the older pro with five Grand Tour titles on his palmar\u00e8s (Rogli\u010d) would park his own ambitions and help the younger pro (Lipowitz) to a podium finish in his maiden Tour de France.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

But Rogli\u010d, 11 years Lipowitz\u2019s senior, has shown little desire to do that. After first giving less-than-convincing answers to the question if he would support Lipowitz \u2013 \u201cfor sure we will do our best with the team,\u201d he said after stage 13 <\/a>\u2013 the Slovenian then went on the attack during the final two mountain days in the Alps.<\/p>\n

On stage 18, the race\u2019s queen stage, he attacked at the foot of the first climb, and after Lipowitz then made a suicide move in the valley before the final ascent, Rogli\u010d opted against going back to support the 24-year-old German, and finished 53 seconds ahead of Lipowitz.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours later, and with Lipowitz\u2019s third-place and white jersey under serious threat from Picnic PostNL\u2019s Oscar Onley<\/a>, Rogli\u010d again raised eyebrows by going up the road on the climbs of Col du Pre and Cormet de Roselend. When he was eventually caught by the leading group, of which Lipowitz was part of, Rogli\u010d went backwards, finishing the day more than 12 minutes behind winner Thymen Arensman<\/a>, and slipping from fifth to eighth.<\/p>\n

Lipowitz all but secured third after distancing Onley in the closing stages \u2013 a significant result for the Tour debutant \u2013 but the post-race intrigue was centred entirely on Rogli\u010d. Have Red Bull been able to control him this Tour? \u201cI have to say yes,\u201d answered the team\u2019s sports director Enrico Gasparotto.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimo\u017e is a champion. He has his own opinion a lot of the time about many things and he has his own big experience which I respect. We did talk about what to do and how to do it, but I also know and he knows that Primo\u017e is 35-years-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack to your question: yes, I think I have had Primo\u017e under control. The last two days Primo\u017e put winning a stage as a priority and to fight for it. For him, finishing fourth, sixth or seventh in GC, it doesn\u2019t change his life, but he wanted to win something here in this Tour de France, to say I am getting to Paris and I\u2019ve won a stage, which is understandable, really understandable. To answer your question with one word: yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Florian<\/p>\n

Lipowitz looks almost certain to finish third in his first ever Tour de France.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Expanding on the tactics of his team\u2019s co-leaders in the past two stages, Gasparotto defended Rogli\u010d\u2019s wishes to chase stage glory, and admitted that Lipowitz had been naive by attacking in the valley before the climb to Col de la Loze on stage 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cLipowitz is a super young rider, super motivated, as you could also see in the first part of the Tour de France when a couple of times he moved based on instinct and emotions,\u201d Gasparotto continued. \u201cThat\u2019s also what happened yesterday and he paid the price big time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reviewed all of yesterday\u2019s stage 100 times last night. I still do think that normally I plan tactics quite well but yesterday was a good f**k up. We cannot say it wasn\u2019t because we lost a lot in the last three kilometres. But at the top of the Madeleine we had 2:30 on Onley and Lipowitz was 35 seconds behind Primo\u017e who was in the first group.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of this descent, they slowed down. If they didn\u2019t slow down, and Primo\u017e went with the yellow jersey to the finish, maybe he finishes third on the podium and Lipo gets back with Onley, stays on his wheel, finishes fourth [on GC] and with the white jersey. But it didn\u2019t happen because they completely stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat surprised us was the attack of Lipo which was never planned, but what happened after the attack of Lipo? In 30 seconds he got two minutes on the yellow jersey and 4:30 to Onley, five minutes to Onley. At one point we were three minutes to yellow and five to Onley. What do you do? You cannot stop him and that\u2019s why it was like it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pre-race meetings ahead of stage 19 were all about controlling Lipowitz, not Rogli\u010d. \u201cObviously that was all in the discussion this morning, trying to explain to him [Lipowitz] what happens in Grand Tours in the third week and so on and so forth, and today I think he learned a lesson and I am happy about that,\u201d Gasparotto continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the faster the young kids learn, the better they are, and the earlier they get success, and Lipo deserves that because he\u2019s such a strong rider that there\u2019s no doubt about it.<\/p>\n

In the end, Red Bull look set to achieve their pre-race goal: a top-three finish, and with the added bonus of winning the young riders’ classification. \u201cWe came here to aim for a podium and if we finish it off then it\u2019s mission complete,\u201d Gasparotto said. Lipowitz allowed himself a quick glance at the finish line, too. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible what’s happening this summer for me,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n

But whether or not Rogli\u010d is truly content that it will be his teammate and not him alongside Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> and Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> on the podium in Paris will depend on how you view his racing of the past week. When he rolled back to his team\u2019s bus in the soaking rain at the top of La Plagne, he met his family, smiled, chatted with them, but refused to speak to the media. The probable answer to his mysterious ways is what he\u2019s been saying all along: he doesn\u2019t really care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 Tour de France started with Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d repeatedly insisting that \u201cI don\u2019t really care.\u201d It ends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-292389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114917675236894274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}