If you bring Lotte Kopecky to the finish line of the Tour of Flanders, the chances are that she will beat you in the sprint. The world champion has done it before – this is how she’s so good at winning bike races. She can follow the wheels on the short, punchy climbs of Belgium that she grew up racing on, and then she can unleash that devastating turn of speed to secure victory. That’s how the script went on Sunday when she took her third De Ronde title, delighting home fans and becoming the outright record holder for victories in the race's history.
Kopecky managed to do this despite showing signs of weakness in last Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, unable to respond to the blistering attack of Elisa Longo-Borghini who went on to win the race solo that day. The UAE Team ADQ rider crashed out of Flanders so was unable to challenge Kopecky for the Monument win, and her absence was certainly felt in the finale of the race. There were times during the Tour of Flanders when the world champion did not look unbeatable on the cobbled climbs, but she managed to hold on to the wheels of the likes of Movistar’s Liane Lippert and Canyon//SRAM’s Kasia Niewiadoma by sheer determination. Under the pressure of Lippert, it looked like the elastic might just snap for the SD Worx-Protime rider, however, through gritted teeth Kopecky clung to the wheels.
Movistar in particular was the team who tried everything to beat the Belgian rider, using each incline as a springboard to make an attack which would put her under pressure. The Spanish squad were the race’s entertainers, not prepared to sit back and hand SD Worx victory on a silver platter.
“With the combination of Marlen [Reusser] and me, we have to race aggressively, that’s the benefit of having both of us. Me on the punchy climbs and she can go over and attack. In the end it’s a really good thing to try and break the race in some parts, it’s good to be aggressive,” Lippert commented after the race where she eventually finished in third place.
“All the other girls did a good job positioning us and keeping us calm for the first part of the race and we actually opened the race up with me attacking on the Kruisberg, we knew that I was really strong and on the Kwaremont I was actually splitting the group and not struggling too much with the best in the race.”
The Movistar rider believed that Kopecky could have been put under more pressure, but argued that she couldn’t do it alone: “I think it’s really hard, we could have made her suffer a bit more on those climbs but then it’s hard because I’m also wasting energy myself to do it all,” she stated. “It would be more beneficial for Marlen and me if the race was harder already on the earlier climbs that aren’t on cobbles to make others suffer more. FDJ did take the responsibility and started to ride a bit, but if Demi [Vollering] was there and Elisa for UAE, that would have made things different.”
Lippert’s teammate, Reusser, shared the opinion that other teams need to think creatively and ride more aggressively in order to beat a rider like Kopecky.
“Still people were not riding, nobody took a lot of responsibility to ride behind the break. Afterwards there was more race action, but I think we did a lot of it again,” the Swiss rider commented. “I think personally maybe I did a bit too much. We are convinced we have a strong team and we should use all of us. Our sports director is also making good plans together. I prefer to race rather than wait, maybe too much. We are happy with third but I think seeing what Liane is able to do today, she’s in top shape for herself and somehow she could maybe even win the race - so we’re happy but a bit sad.”
It wasn’t just Movistar who brought an aggressive tactic to De Ronde – Lidl-Trek tried to use their numbers to split up the race when Kopecky was isolated too. Their bolshy moves did not end up paying off in the end, however, with their best placed finisher being Ellen van Dijk coming in eighth – a result that does not repay the work of the American squad during the race.
“We wanted to be aggressive and play our cards, we certainly tried to animate the race and see what we could do. The break got out to quite a big gap but it had the feeling of anticipation and waiting for it to kick off – some big teams wanted to open it up like we did and Movistar did as well so it has been a shift and I hope it’s some exciting racing,” Lauretta Hanson, Van Dijk’s teammate, said after crossing the line in Oudenaarde.
As Paris-Roubaix looms on the horizon next weekend, the flat, cobbled terrain is even more suited to Kopecky’s strengths. She goes into the race as defending champion, and will be confident in her ability after what happened in De Ronde on Sunday. Is there any way to beat Kopecky and SD Worx in the Hell of the North? As Lippert stated, perhaps anticipation and aggression is the key, though there are no climbs to use for attacks in Roubaix.
Second place finisher at the Tour of Flanders, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, argued that despite Kopecky’s clear strength, Roubaix is far from a foregone conclusion: “We want to win Roubaix with Marianne [Vos] next week. I think anything can happen, a race like today, Longo Borghini had a crash so it’s so hectic, you need to be good in positioning for all the race, anything can happen,” Ferrand-Prévot said.
“Marianne is also fast in sprinting - maybe even better than Lotte - we need to make the race hard, and if Marianne can sprint she can win Roubaix. If Marianne didn't have a mechanical today maybe we would have had two at the front and it’s a different story.”
The Frenchwoman is right that anything can happen in bike racing – crashes and mechanicals are commonplace on the brutal cobbles of Roubaix. However, the women’s peloton also needs to take initiative when it comes to trying to get the better of Kopecky and SD Worx. Movistar and Lidl-Trek’s aggressive racing may not have paid off with victory on Sunday, but they certainly made Kopecky work hard for her Tour of Flanders title. If more teams adopt this mindset, then perhaps they can stop the Belgian rider taking the spoils again next weekend.
