Florian Lipowitz's journey into history: The fourth German to reach the podium?

Florian Lipowitz is still 949.8 kilometers from the finish line of the 112th Tour de France on Sunday on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. 949.8 kilometers, divided into six stages, will determine whether the 24-year-old professional cyclist from Team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe will be given his own chapter in the history books of German sports.

"I'm getting a lot of messages. Everyone is happy for me. I hope I'm not putting too much pressure on myself," Germany's two-wheeled hopeful told ARD over the weekend.

A look at cycling history reveals that Lipowitz, ranked third in the overall standings before the final week of the Tour, has only three predecessors in more than a century of the Tour de France who have achieved similar feats in the world's biggest cycling race. And two of them achieved their successes in cycling's darkest age.

Lipowitz, who will also wear the white jersey of the best young professional in his Tour debut, was just five years old when the last time a German was allowed to climb onto the podium after the final stage of the Tour de France. That was in 2006. Andreas Klöden only finished third in the overall classification, but moved up to second after the actual winner Floyd Landis was disqualified for doping. The now 50-year-old had also achieved this position two years earlier, behind record winner Lance Armstrong, whose seven Tour de France victories were also deleted from the results lists due to doping. Klöden, who, like all other runners-up in the Armstrong era, was not allowed to move up, has always denied doping allegations against him.

Klöden's direct predecessor, on the other hand, is the German cycling icon par excellence, the darling of the masses, who suffered an even worse fall in the face of his own doping past, has since come clean and picked himself up again: Jan Ullrich, riding for Team Telekom in 1997, left everyone behind and triggered an unprecedented cycling boom in this country with his Tour victory, the only one by a German rider to date.

The doping scandals that dominated cycling for more than a decade from 1998 onwards initially had no effect. Doping was always someone else's fault. On the other hand, one felt for the seemingly so human Ullrich, who, after his 1997 triumph, continued to finish second year after year (five times in total), usually behind the seemingly so inhuman Armstrong. In 2012, the now 51-year-old lost his third place in his last Tour de France in 2005, in the final instance, before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). By then, it had long been clear how deeply the once magenta-shining Team Telekom had been involved in widespread doping practices.

Best young professional: Florian Lipowitz in the white jersey at the award ceremony.

Source: IMAGO/Belga

Lipowitz belongs to a new generation for whom doping is primarily a shadow of the past. This past isn't quite as distant as the achievements of Kurt Stöpel, who in 1932 became the first German to finish second overall on a Tour podium, but far enough that Lipowitz says: "I think that time is over, and there's no need to look too closely at anyone else."

The last doping offender at the Tour de France was finally convicted in 2015. Since then, based on past experiences, only suspicion has been justified. "I can only say for myself that I'm doing everything according to the rules. I also want to be able to go to bed with peace of mind," Lipowitz said on Monday, the second rest day of this year's Tour.

Until Sunday, the former biathlete from Laichingen, Baden-Württemberg, still faces several extremely difficult challenges on the 949.8-kilometer course, which could prevent him from reaching the podium alongside dominant leader and three-time winner Tadej Pogacar and runner-up and two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard. This Tuesday, he heads up the infamous Mont Ventoux in Provence. On Thursday and Friday, five top-class climbs await, along with the corresponding dangers of losing time, during the two stages in the Alps.

Lipowitz got an idea that the three-week tour could be over in an instant with a bit of bad luck on Sunday when he had, as he himself put it, “a small fall, about 20 or 30 kilometers after the start.”

Meanwhile, Pogacar and Vingegaard, who are placed ahead of Lipowitz, are still exactly 949.8 kilometers away from the finish line in Paris, along with all the associated risks and dangers.