Seven weeks on from his Tour de France-ending crash, Florian Lipowitz is making his racing return, the German racer heading to the late-season Italian Classics to end his 2026 season.
Lipowitz, along with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe co-leader Remco Evenepoel, was in contention for the Tour podium when he crashed during the stage 16 time trial in Thonon-les-Bains. He suffered a broken collarbone in the fall, which meant he left the race from fifth overall.
On Wednesday, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe announced that the 25-year-old would make his return to the peloton at the Giro della Toscana on September 9.
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"More than anything, I'm looking forward to pinning on a race number again and racing. After seven weeks without competition, I can't know exactly where I stand," Lipowitz said.
"That's what we want to find out. For me, these first races aren't about results. I want to see how my body responds to the demands of racing, get back into the rhythm and then decide together with the team what is still possible this season."
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe noted the race is part of a performance assessment ahead of the final weeks of the season.
He's tentatively penned in for several more races, but participation will depend on how Toscana goes. The race is "less about achieving a result and more about establishing where Florian stands ahead of the remaining weeks of the season," the team said.
If all goes well, Lipowitz should race on to the Coppa Sabatini (September 10), the Memorial Marco Pantani (September 12), and the Trofeo Matteotti (September 13).
"When returning from an injury, the goal is not to get back to your previous training load as quickly as possible. We have to build load tolerance and performance in parallel," said team director of coaching, John Wakefield.
"With Florian, we saw early on that we were making good progress and that we could at least consider the originally planned return to racing a realistic goal. But the key is to assess every step based on how he responds to the load – not based on a date in the calendar."
Lipowitz still has almost a week of training before returning to the peloton, but he's already thinking of bigger goals further ahead.
A shot at the Road World Championships in Montréal on September 27 is also on his mind.
"Of course, the World Championships are a race that appeals to me. But one thing is also clear: if my form isn't good enough, I don't want to take a spot away from another rider," he said.
"We have a lot of strong German riders who are well suited to the course in Montréal. I want to wait for these first races and take an honest look at where I stand. If the form is there, I'd really like to race the Worlds – but I'm not putting any pressure on myself about that right now."
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