What’s odd about this is that Pidcock and van Aert are not members of the Red Bull cycling squad. They ride, respectively, for Q36.5 and Visma–Lease a Bike. But if you look closely at the photos accompanying these features, you’ll note that they are both wearing Red Bull helmets, as they do when they ride in races.
Pidcock and van Aert aren’t betraying their teams; they’re just earning a little extra by serving as living billboards for one of the biggest brands in the world. Because that is what Red Bull is above everything else: a global brand and the most popular energy drink brand in the world, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi. To further the interest of the brand, Red Bull owns or sponsors at least six football clubs, two Formula 1 teams, two ice hockey teams, and the English rugby union side Red Bull Newcastle.
There’s nothing wrong with that; after all, that’s why Visma and Lease a Bike lend their names to van Aert’s team: to give their brands more recognition and hopefully tie it to success. The German manufacturer of innovative kitchen appliances like cooktop extractors BORA Lufttechnik GmbH, and the German plumbing materials and sanitary fittings manufacturer Hansgrohe SE are more than happy to ride the giant wave of Red Bull’s global ambitions. And the company’s ambitions are grandiose. In cycling, they just spent, according to Velo, €50 million(!) to have Remco Evenepoel break his contract with Soudal Quick-Step and join the Red Bull assault on the Tour de France.
And never mind that the exciting young Red Bull rider Florian Lipowitz finished third in this year’s Tour, because he finished 11 minutes behind the now four-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) and 6:36 adrift of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike). For a team with the money to match its grand ambitions, that’s simply not good enough. Of course, anyone who saw this year’s Tour witnessed Lipowitz’s Herculean efforts to take that final podium spot also might have noticed that he did it largely on his own. While other top GC riders had teammates riding in front of them, to break the wind resistance, the young German was mostly surrounded by empty space. And when he did find a line of riders to accompany him, they were always those of rival teams who let Lipowitz ride in front.
I assume that the Red Bull support riders in the race were riding in support of the five-time Grand Tour winner Primož Roglič, who finished eighth, 14:30 behind Lipowitz and therefore 25:30 behind the winner. Apparently, someone at Red Bull paid attention and noticed the wasted use of team resources, because team founder and general manager Ralph Denk has shaken up his coaching staff, releasing sports directors Rolf Aldag, Bernie Eisel, Enrico Gasparotto, and Heinrich Haussler.
In their place, Denk has gone out of his way to make his prize recruit, Evenepoel, feel welcome, beginning with the signing of Zak Dempster as its new Chief of Sports and Oliver Cookson as Head of Racing, both snatched from INEOS Grenadiers. Also coming on the staff are former Evenepoel collaborators and confidants Klaas Lodewyck (from Soudal Quick-Step) and Sven Vanthourenhout, the former Belgian national coach who guided Evenepoel to world and Olympic titles, and Tony Gallopin was hired from Lotto. That is a lot of coaching firepower and a statement that Red Bull is more than serious about challenging UAE Team Emirates–XRG and Visma–Lease a Bike for Grand Tour supremacy. Since 2020, these two teams have won 13 of 18 Grand Tours, including all six Tours de France.
Several questions remain, the major one being whether Evenepoel can beat Pogačar, who seems to be improving from year to year. Can he even beat Vingegaard, who finally announced himself back at full fitness 18 months after his disastrous crash in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country? I don’t think so. The triple world time trial champion seems to lack some physical attribute that the very best climbers, like Pogačar and Vingegaard, have, whether it’s something in his morphology or the attribute that makes him the best time trial rider in the world. Pogačar and Vingegaard are both excellent time trialers, but not on Evenepoel’s level, and he is not on their level on the long, steep climbs that decide a Grand Tour. Evenepoel has ridden in six Grand Tours and has only a win in the 2022 Vuelta a España and a third place in the 2024 Tour to show for it. Perhaps with the new coaching setup at Red Bull and the company’s deep pockets, he will succeed.
Other questions are what to do with Lipowitz and, especially, with the 36-year-old Roglič, who would have been winless all year if not for the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. Will Lipowitz want to ride support for Evenepoel in the Tour if he is promised a go at the Giro or the Vuelta? Will Roglič want a final try for a Grand Tour victory? I really can’t see him riding support for anyone, except Pogačar, in the world championships. It’s great that Red Bull now has an embarrassment of riches. But if it doesn’t win a Grand Tour soon, it will be richly embarrassing.
