Stage 18: "We took a risk – no blame on Florian!"

In the latest episode, Denk talks about Stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France. “The result doesn’t look good on paper. On the other hand, we could have even won the stage today. We want to offer exciting cycling – and we did that today,” says the 51-year-old. In the general classification, Lipowitz now holds only a 22-second lead over Oscar Onley, raising questions about Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s tactics. “We underestimated the race situation a bit – things didn’t go ideally. But that’s cycling; you can’t plan everything. Had we won, we would’ve been heroes. Now the result isn’t great,” Denk analyzes. He explicitly defends his protégé Lipowitz: “We took a risk, and it could have worked. Florian felt good and went for it. If you don’t try, you can’t win. So no blame on him,” the team manager adds. In the final part, the focus shifts to Friday’s Stage 19. Right after the queen stage, the second part of the spectacular climbing show in the Alps is on the schedule. “We don’t have a concrete plan yet, but I can imagine we’ll take a more conservative approach and keep a close eye on Onley,” Denk concludes. The original version of this podcast was recorded in German and translated with the help of artificial intelligence. OVB Media accepts no liability for any translation errors. Photo: IMAGO/Luca Bettini