The Inter-Red Bull Teammate Drama Is The Best Story Of The Tour de France So Far

BERGERAC, France — The 2026 Tour de France is thus far mostly bereft of big narratives and interesting surprises. The race for the first two podium places seems mostly over. There is no off-bike story that's captivated the race or raised larger-order implications like the saga of Ineos soigneur David Rozman's doping connections. Torstein Træn delighted the race and threatened to upend the back half of the top-10 fight, only to crack on the Tourmalet before falling on the descent and breaking a quartet of his ribs.

However, there is still one major piece of intrigue. What the hell is going on with the public spat between the two biggest stars at Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe?

The drama kicked off after Stage 6, in which Tadej Pogacar smashed the Tourmalet climbing and descending records en route to a dominant solo stage win and the likely permanent seizure of the yellow jersey. Behind him, Jonas Vingegaard rode in solo for second, and a six-rider pack of contenders for the final podium spot sprinted it out. The finishing sextet featured two pairs of teammates, the stronger of which is Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, who finished fourth and sixth on the day, respectively. They came into the Tour as co-leaders, a bad idea in general and a particularly nonsensical one for this pair.

One test of their teamwork in, and Evenepoel was furious. "I had asked for a lead-out, and I didn't get one," Evenepoel told Sporza. "I think I was justifiably angry. At the Volta a Catalunya, I rode at the front for him for 30km. I asked him to ride at the front for one kilometer, and that wasn't possible. That made me angry, and that will need to be discussed thoroughly tonight."

That's pretty spicy for the sixth stage of the race, raising a number of questions. Did Lipowitz refuse Evenepoel, or was he simply unable to do so? Is there a floating exchange rate between pulls in Catalunya and pulls in France? Who is the team leader at Red Bull? What prompted them to release the following video the next day, which has the cinematograhpic stylings of a hostage video?

In order to best provide the possible answers, there are a few important pieces of context. The first is that this isn't out of character for Evenepoel. He's one of the sport's best and most beloved riders, a genuine prodigy and the best Belgian of his generation. He is blessed with aerodynamic skin, the air settling on him more lightly, as if he were some sort of minor deity.

From the moment Evenepoel left the RSC Anderlecht Football Academy and sat on a bike, he's been a superstar. Evenepoel did the World and European road and time trial double-double in his second year riding competitively, taking the European road race by a shocking 10-minute margin. He hit the pros, started winning big immediately, and the myth was born, well before he won double Olympic gold: for the first time in decades, here was a Belgian who could conceivably win the Tour de France.

Evenepoel had the bad fortune of being born around the same time as Tadej Pogacar, though finishing third at his Tour debut in 2024 showed the broader cycling world his extreme talent. That Tour also showed everyone Evenepoel's irascible side. Evenepoel carries himself with the militant self-assuredness of someone who knows he was born into greatness, insisting at every turn that the world bend under his wheels. That's not ridiculous, since mostly it does, but in a sport whose very brutality sands off the thornier parts of anyone's personality, it stands out.

There was the moment at the 2021 Giro when he ripped out his earpiece. The time when he went rogue at the 2021 World Championships and tried to win for himself instead of riding for his leader (it was a disaster). And the time when he complained "We're not monkeys in a circus," about a poorly organized team time trial. He also, famously, called out then-defending Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard in 2024 for not having "the balls to race."

Evenepoel had a bad second Tour last year, running a distant third when he climbed off his bike on the Tourmalet and abandoned the race on Stage 14. That Tour was his final with the once-proud Belgian powerhouse QuickStep team. He would leave the increasingly irrelevant QuickStep for the big-time over at Red Bull.

The Austrian content machine/drinks brand came on as title sponsor in 2024, only for Primoz Roglic to flop at the Tour. They've had success, though they're clearly behind Visma and UAE, and signing Evenepoel made all the sense in the world: Ambitious rising hotshot finds a squad with budget, know-how, and the need for a superstar.

The only problem? Florian Lipowitz.

The 25-year-old German rider is different from Evenepoel in almost every way. Where Evenepoel wins all the time, packs a crazy sprint, and struggles in three-week races due to a propensity for bad days, Lipowitz is the picture of steadiness. The tall climber can be counted on to finish in the top-five of almost any major race he targets, making up for lack of explosiveness with remarkable consistency.

Lipowitz is such a strong climber he managed third at the Tour de France for Red Bull last year despite not really knowing how to race. This combination of physical talent and tactical cluelessness intrigued. I found myself chatting with Lipowitz's dad and brother in Paris last year, and the impression they conveyed of Florian was of a humble, chill guy who was thrilled, if not a little surprised, with his own performance. When I mentioned that a sports director, when I asked them to speculate on how to beat Pogacar, said the ideal combo would be something like Evenepoel working for Lipowitz, they lit up.

The problem is that both riders have fair arguments that they should be the one worked for, not the one working. The theory of Red Bull's Tour de France strategy was that they'll both ride for themselves and the road will decide, which is an ornate way to say they're pitted against each other until someone cracks. The blow-up following Stage 6 showed how unstable that dynamic is, as have Red Bull's attempts to bring it under control.

"There was a bit of disagreement and a language barrier, but it also happened in the heat of the moment," team manager Ralph Denk said. "It was not a big thing. I saw them afterwards and they had spoken about it. They sat together at dinner and were laughing." The language barrier bit is a mildly intriguing misdirection. Red Bull is a German team, though they conduct themselves primarily in English, which I've seen both guys speak more or less fluently.

Evenepoel was asked what he and Lipowitz talked about, and he snapped, "You don’t need to know that. I don’t have to tell you everything, otherwise nothing will be private anymore."

This brings us back to the strange bus video. When you hear the Evenepoel quote for the first time, the first thing you think is how tense and awkward it must be on that bus. These guys have to spend three weeks together, morning, afternoon, and night. Red Bull aren't stupid; they know what the reaction to that quote will be, and they saw how the public laughed at the Denk response.

The video's strained artifice is meant to respond directly to the natural inquiry about what the bus is like after a blow-up. Yes, the video is uncomfortable, but addressing the issue so directly intimates that the two riders can't actually be so annoyed with each other. It suggests the very act of sharing a bus itself obviates any true rifts, because how could there be when everyone is crammed into such proximity?

But look at Evenepoel. He's sitting rigid in his chair, visibly tense, and quick to underline that a good day involved fourth for him and sixth for his teammate. Evenepoel might not be a guy who holds grudges, but he's definitely a rider who thinks he should be given the freedom and support to race his own race, not have to contend with his own teammate. It's interesting that Evenepoel is the center of the controversy, when Lipowitz's role is actually far more intriguing. What are his personal ambitions at this Tour? Lipowitz doesn't have 1/100th the public profile as Evenepoel, so he's oddly a bit character in his own drama.

As Evenepoel's cantankerous former director Patrick Lefevre said, "I worked with Remco for seven years, so believe me, he’s the quintessential alpha male: ‘Me, myself, me.’ Shared leadership? Not in his head. If that sounds harsh: show me a captain, a real captain, who isn’t like that."

LeFevre is a shithead, a blowhard, and he and Evenepoel clashed for years at QuickStep, so it's worth being skeptical of him, but his final point is correct. Shared leadership doesn't work. The road will decide, but letting it have its say makes everyone's lives harder and more complicated.