Roglič also won the Critérium du Dauphiné and Dani Martínez and Aleksandr Vlasov finished second in the Giro d’Italia and Tour de Romandie, respectively. The team’s total of 23 wins so far this season is respectable, though not overly impressive. With 14,987 points, Red Bull sits fourth in the UCI World Team Rankings, having gained three places from Roglič’s Vuelta victory and three stage wins.
Again, good but not great. They trail Lidl-Trek, Visma–Lease a Bike and, by light-years, UAE Team Emirates. Knowing Red Bull’s sporting ambitions, they will want to be better, much better. The world-famous energy drink brand became a team sponsor just before the Tour de France and has promised to invest the same level of ambition and money in the sport as they have brought to Formula 1 racing where they have won seven drivers’ championships and six constructors’ championships.
That ambition, funding and Red Bull’s high-tech Athlete Performance Centers in Austria and Los Angeles make the team an attractive place to land for riders who feel their talents are not appreciated at their current place of employment. Tech and money are honey to ambitious athletes.
Much of Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe’s investment and ambition are being directed at the future. Starting in 2025, a new U23 program will train young riders to become part of the WorldTour team. “We have a clear plan to become the most attractive brand in cycling,” Ralph Denk, team CEO explained on the team’s website. “I want to find iconic riders, and the development of young talents is a huge focus for us.”
To that end, the team has already recruited several impressive young riders this year: Laurence Pithie, 22, from Groupama-FDJ; Finn Fisher-Black, also 22, from UAE Team Emirates; and the 24-year-old van Dijke twins, Tim and Mick, from Visma–Lease a Bike. They join a team that already boasts one of the most promising young riders on the road, Florian Lipowitz.
The 23-year-old German was an invaluable domestique for Roglič in the mountains, demonstrating speed and power. That, despite his efforts on behalf of his leader, he finished seventh in the GC and second in the best young rider competition, behind Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose, is testimony to his talent and potential. Is Lipowitz a potential Grand Tour winner? It’s too early to tell but he is likely not to remain a domestique for long.
Considering Red Bull’s ambitions, a Tour de France victory in the near future would appear to be a primary target for the team. But Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar have had a stranglehold on that race for the past five years, and with Roglič turning 35 in October, that feat looks beyond his reach now.
That was certainly one reason the team has reportedly been courting Soudal–Quick Step’s superstar Remco Evenepoel. The newly crowned 2024 Olympics road race gold medal winner won the Vuelta in 2022 and finished an impressive third in this year’s Tour, his first ride in the race. At 24, he has an immense upside that could see him eventually win road racing’s most prestigious prize. And Red Bull, with its riches and state-of-the-art training facilities, would seem to be the perfect fit.
But Evenepoel has definitively put an end to that possibility, at least for 2025. Asked if he will still ride for Soudal–Quick-Step next year, he replied: “That’s a yes.” Perhaps Evenepoel was unwilling to break his contract or Red Bull did not want to pay Soudal the surely extravagant price it would take to convince Soudal boss Patrick Levefere to let the young superstar walk.
But all bets are off for 2026. If Evenepoel doesn’t improve on his third-place finish in next year’s Tour, he may decide to walk away from his contract anyway. Much depends on the riders Soudal signs this year to help him in that quest. It’s hard to imagine that, if Evenepoel really has his heart set on winning the Tour (he does!), he could find a better place to land in 2026 than Red Bull.
In the meantime, Roglič will surely want to give the Tour one more shot, no matter how long the odds. And he will probably want to go for a fifth Vuelta victory next year. In the unlikely event that he decides to retire, Red Bull have Vlasov, Martínez and maybe Lipowitz to try for podium finishes at the Grand Tours. Personally, I would like to see the young German given a shot at a Grand Tour GC.
Whatever the personnel, the participation of Red Bull with the team has raised the stakes and the expectations, with the website promising that the new arrangement is “the beginning of a partnership that aims to transform the German team into the world’s best.”
Given who they are up against, they still have a long way to go. However, with Red Bull’s track record and its riches, I think Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe will challenge UAE Team Emirates and Visma–Lease a Bike for road supremacy in three to five years. All they need is a superstar.
