Patrick Lefevere explains his view on the Evenepoel and Lipowitz case: “Reality is part of the paycheck”

Patrick Lefevere has responded in his weekly column for Het Nieuwsblad to the friction between Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz after Stage 5 of the Tour de France. The former manager of the Belgian cyclist had seen it coming—that at some point, tension would arise at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.

“What did I think when Remco Evenepoel caused a ‘stir’ at Red Bull? That it took a long time to happen,” Lefevere begins. “Sorry, but this was written in the stars. I worked with Remco for seven years, so take it from me: he’s the alpha male among alpha males. Me, myself, and I.”

“Shared team leader role? Not in his head. If that sounds harsh: show me a team leader—a real team leader—who isn’t wired that way,” says Lefevere, who knows how things work. “Can Remco, who finished third in the 2024 Tour de France, expect a lead-out from Florian Lipowitz, who finished third in the 2025 Tour? Of course, he’s free to ask, but whether Lipowitz should agree to it is another matter. In any case, it doesn’t seem like the kind of job that suits his strengths.”

Lefevere weighs in on the dynamic between the two. “Remco balanced the refused lead-out with the thirty kilometers of lead-out work he’d done for Lipowitz in the Tour of Catalonia. I know him, so I know he does that kind of mental math. Is it fair? In racing, you always give with the expectation of getting something back later, but in this case, one thing is one thing and the other is another. Remco shouldn’t have brought that up so explicitly.”

'At the same time, I think: if you wanted to leave our team for a better salary—and maybe, just maybe, better support—then this is kind of part of the deal. With us, you were always and everywhere the first and only team leader. Not at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. That reality comes with the paycheck,’ the former Belgian team boss points out.

“I’m the first to put the ‘World Tour’ label into perspective: they’re all international ‘companies’ that employ people from all over the world. But a German team isn’t going to let a German rider who finishes third in the Tour play second fiddle the following year, of course,” he explains. “The timeline of Lipowitz’s big breakthrough and Evenepoel’s major Red Bull contract is a bit murky, but I assume clear agreements were made. If not: it’s their own fault.”

“Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe has since switched to crisis communication mode: Evenepoel and Lipowitz have worked things out. That’s entirely possible, because that’s just how Remco is: a few loud outbursts, and then it’s all water under the bridge. The real solution, of course, is for one of the two team leaders to falter at some point. I don’t wish that on Remco, and seeing how sharp he is, I don’t expect it either. The problem is that the next real mountain stage isn’t on the schedule until next weekend. That’s plenty of time to talk it all out, but also plenty of time for underlying discontent to fester.'