'I thought maybe it would never happen' - Florian Lipowitz collects Tour de France Best Young Rider's jersey after taking third overall in Paris

,It's been barely two years since Tadej Pogačar could last claim the Best Young Rider's jersey in the Tour de France, but if the four-time overall winner is no longer eligible for the category, after Remco Evenepoel took the white jersey home in 2024, Florian Lipowitz certainly makes for another striking new successor to Pogačar in 2025.

Like Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) last year in Nice, Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was able to claim the third spot on the Paris podium behind Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as well as the white jersey in his first-ever Tour de France participation.

Both riders ensured a long overdue return for their countries to the Tour podium could be possible too - Evenepoel being the first Belgian in the top three since Lucien Van Impe's second place in 1981, Lipowitz being the first German to do the same since Andreas Klöden took second back in 2004. Similarly to Evenepoel, too, in 2024, if Vingegaard and Pogačar were in a league and duel of their own last July, Lipowitz had his own tough battles to fight to remain in third overall.

In Lipowitz's case, his lack of experience resulted in some tactical errors - "the sports directors were also sometimes not really happy with me," he recounted, with a shy grin, to journalists in his press conference on Sunday evening. But he also had a lengthy battle to keep Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) at bay. The Scot rode an almost equally spectacular debut Tour to finish in fourth place, and with less than 30 seconds between himself and Lipowitz, unlike Evenepoel keeping his closest pursuer João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at nearly ten minutes, Onley's challenge only ended when he faded on the last summit finish at La Plagne.

A WorldTour pro since 2023, just in this season, Lipowitz has also managed to build up an impressive display of BYR jerseys in his trophy cabinet - thanks to second place in Paris-Nice behind Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), and third place in the Dauphiné behind, again, Pogačar and Vingegaard.

These were preceded by seventh place in the Vuelta a España last year as well as a podium finish in Romandie, while his earliest days as an athlete, however, were spent mainly doing biathlon. After getting his first racing licence in 2020 then riding with small Austrian Conti Team Tirol-KTM, despite various illnesses - his fragile health is perhaps a chink in his armour, and saw him quit the Giro last year after a promising first week - he then signed with Red Bull in 2023.

The team brought him to the Tour with the initial idea of helping leader Primoz Roglic and seeing what he could do, but finally, the apprentice has outstripped the master, rewarding Red Bull's faith in him with the team's first-ever place on a Tour de France podium, and potentially greater rewards in the future.

"I think for sure I think I need one or two more days to realise what I've done, what happened in the last three weeks," Lipowitz told reporters on Sunday evening about his considerably exceeding expectations.

"For sure, I'm super happy being on the podium at the Tour, it was always a dream, I thought it maybe would never happen, but doing that is something very special."

As for how it felt to be up there gaining increasing interest and praise from fans for his performance, he said, "I've been living up there in a bubble, to be honest, I didn't really realise what's going on outside of the cycling world, I will also realise that in the next days. In the end, I just want to race."

Regarding his fight against Onley for third, he said, "Going into the Tour, I was never thinking about fighting for the white jersey but day by day I realised it was possible. I knew Oscar was a strong rider, he showed in the Tour de Suisse" - where the 22-year-old Picnic-PostNL racer finished third overall and won a tough mountain stage - "he can compete with the best."

"I lost some time on the second last mountain stage but I tried my best on stage 19 and I made it now to Paris. But I enjoyed it, too."

Being on the podium in Paris is very special, he said, but he was honest enough to recognise that Vingegaard and Pogačar were "on a different level." That meant that he would not, for now, be spending too much time planning fighting for overall victory in the years to come, rather he wanted to focus on enjoying his own achievements this July.

"Also, I have to say the last three years have gone pretty well for me, but it's not always going to go all that way, for sure. I will also have some setbacks and I want to enjoy now and not think about the future too much."

Whilst politely dismissing the more than likely arrival of Remco Evenpoel in Red Bull as rumours, and that he had been too focused on the Tour to think about that. But he also said that he would be happy to work with him in the future should the previous Best Young Rider sign for Red Bull and "if he comes, we can achieve something together."

As for his own next steps, Lipowitz also freely recognised that he has a lot to learn, particularly after his late beginnings in the sport. "I started doing UCI [classified] races just five and a half years ago, so it would be pretty strange if I already did everything perfect," he pointed out with a flash of wry humour.

"But it's also in my nature to race and I think as a GC racer you always need to be patient, stay calm and save energy. I just want to race, maybe sometimes it's stupid, also the sports directors were also sometimes not really happy with me, but that's why we are here."

"We want to race and for sure we can do better," he concluded. But even if there is room for improvement, taking the Tour's white jersey on his first ever participation surely bodes very well already for the future.