A knee injury shattered his biathlon dreams. Now, the 25-year-old is one of the top contenders for the overall title, joining several former skiers in this year’s Tour de France.

A knee injury ended his biathlon dream. Now the 25-year-old is one of the top contenders for the overall title, and one of several cross-country skiing alumni racing this year’s Tour de France.

As a junior, he was one of Germany’s best biathletes and dreamed of the World Cup circuit. But when a knee injury derailed that path, he turned to cycling. That was in 2019. Now, Florian Lipowitz races for Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe, contesting his second Tour de France.

Last year, the 25-year-old finished third overall at the Tour de France and claimed the young rider classification. This year, Lipowitz arrives at the three-week race with several prestigious victories already in the bag, and is considered one of the leading challengers to Tadej Pogacar for the yellow jersey.

Mathias Vacek was one of the Czech Republic’s top junior cross-country skiers and competed at the Winter Youth Olympics in 2020. He now races for Lidl-Trek alongside Juan Ayuso and Mads Pedersen.

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Norwegian skiing talent makes his debut

Norwegian Per Strand Hagenes races for Visma-Lease A Bike in his first Tour de France. The 22-year-old from Sandnes went all-in on cycling in recent years and earned a professional contract with the top-tier Visma-Lease A Bike squad after winning junior world championship gold in 2021.

As a junior, however, Strand Hagenes invested heavily in cross-country skiing. Before putting the skis away, he made a strong impression at the top of the Norwegian junior rankings. He won the 10km freestyle at the Norwegian Cup junior event at Lygna in 2020 with a 28-second margin, and finished fifth in the 15km freestyle at the Holmenkollen junior race won by U23 world champion Mathias Holbæk.

Also Read – Former cross-country skier to ride the Tour de France

The talking point of 2024

Jonas Abrahamsen, known as “Grenlandsplogen,” races for Uno-X and also has a background in cross-country skiing, using skiing training to build endurance and upper-body strength.

The 30-year-old from Skien had his Tour de France breakthrough in 2024, wearing the polka-dot climbers’ jersey for 10 days and the green sprinters’ jersey for several stages.

Beyond the skiing alumni in the peloton, superstar Tadej Pogacar and rival Jonas Vingegaard are both avid and capable cross-country skiers.

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