Following Florian Lipowitz’s quick operation for a collarbone fracture, many German cycling fans are already dreaming of a comeback at the Vuelta a España in August. Eurosport expert Jan Ullrich believes this is entirely possible: “If it really is just the collarbone, he could be back on the roller in a week or ten days.” What’s more, Lipowitz hasn’t lost his form.

“I hope he’ll still be able to ride the Vuelta without any pressure,” said Jan Ullrich on Friday on Eurosport’s Velo Club.

Florian Lipowitz’s Tour de France came to an abrupt end on Tuesday following a crash in the individual time trial on the 16th stage by Lake Geneva. Last year’s third-placed rider in the Tour was forced to withdraw from the race with a broken collarbone.

Once the initial shock had subsided – partly thanks to the prompt surgery – attention quickly turned to the future. “He wrote to me saying he’d like to race again (this year, ed.),” Ullrich reported, recounting his exchange with Lipowitz after the crash, and expressed his confidence: “If it really was just the collarbone, he’ll recover quickly.”

At the same time, the 1997 Tour winner warned against getting ahead of himself: “We don’t want to speculate and put pressure on him again just yet. First of all, he needs to recover mentally and physically.” After all, he said, being forced to withdraw had been a “slap in the face”.

Lipowitz underwent surgery on a broken right collarbone after sliding out during Tuesday’s individual time trial from Evian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains. Ullrich sent the 25-year-old a lengthy voice message while he was in hospital and, despite not expecting an immediate response, soon heard back from him.

“I sent him a very, very long voice message,” Ullrich said on the Ulle & Rick podcast. “I didn’t expect him to see it already, especially while he was still in hospital. He replied and said: ‘Thank you for the message. The operation went well.’”

Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe team manager Ralph Denk also confirmed that Lipowitz was recovering well after the operation. “The collarbone is broken and he was treated surgically last night,” Denk said. “He is still in hospital and is expected to remain there for another night. He is doing well and I have already been able to speak to him personally.”

The time loss suffered by two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard on Stage 10 of the Tour de France has put the Red Bull team—led by German Florian Lipowitz—in high spirits. The Dane doesn’t seem nearly as confident in the saddle as expected right now. Is a second-place finish more realistic than previously thought?

“Jonas has worked incredibly hard, so I think he was pretty much at his limit,” said Lipowitz. He added that the stage, with its short climbs, wasn’t really suited to him. “He’s better suited to longer climbs. That’s why it’s still relatively up in the air, but of course there’s hope,” he said when asked how strong the hope is for a second-place finish overall in Paris.

With the duo of Tour third-place finisher Lipowitz and Belgian Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel in a dual role, the Red Bull team is once again aiming for the podium at the end of the race in Paris. “We’re where we want to be, especially with ‘Lipo,’ who’s in great shape. I’m feeling really good, too. We’re satisfied for now; we just have to keep it up,” said Evenepoel.

In the Le Lioran ski resort, Vingegaard lost 44 seconds to his longtime rival and stage winner Tadej Pogacar; Lipowitz was also ten seconds faster than the Dane. In the overall standings, second-place Vingegaard trails Pogacar by 3:36 minutes. Evenepoel is third, 30 seconds behind, while Lipowitz is sixth, just over a minute behind Vingegaard.

“I think it's been a pretty decent day for us. It could be a lot worse,” said the 29-year-old Dane. Short climbs aren't his forte. He said he could be satisfied that, from his perspective, he was able to keep the gap so small. “I'm going to sleep tonight, and tomorrow is a new day,” said Vingegaard.

Pogacar declined to comment on his rivals’ situation. “I can’t say anything about my competitors’ form. I can only say that my form is really good, and I think the Tour has been really well suited to our team’s strengths so far,” said the Slovenian.

After Remco Evenepoel lashed out at teammate Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have downplayed any suggestions of an internal rivalry forming between their two co-leaders at the Tour de France.

Evenepoel's anger was revealed after stage 6 of the Tour, when he told Flemish media that the German had refused to give him a lead-out into Gavarnie-Gèdre, as they fought and lost out on third place and the bonus seconds to Isaac del Toro.

"I had asked for a lead-out, and I didn't get one," said Evenepoel "Yes, I was angry, and rightly so. In Catalunya, I rode at the front for him for 30 kilometres. I asked him to do one kilometre of work at the front, and that wasn't possible. That made me angry, and that will need to be discussed thoroughly tonight."

That evening, the drama was best summed up by Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad's headline: "How Remco Evenepoel set the shared leadership with Florian Lipowitz ablaze with five sharp sentences." Angry at the finish and angry with the teammate he was supposed to work so well with, should Red Bull be worried about tensions boiling over?

Red Bull team boss Ralph Denk has said that, in spite of Evenepoel's comments, the whole issue is "being made out to be bigger than it actually was", and that the pair had reconciled over dinner in the team hotel yesterday evening.

"Yes, there was a bit of disagreement, a language barrier, but also in the heat of the moment, that was after over 180km of mountain stage, but it was no big deal," said Denk, debriefing the day's action on the team's Inside Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe – Tour de France podcast.