Lotte Kopecky could write history on Sunday as she has an opportunity to win her third consecutive Tour of Flanders, a feat that was only accomplished once in the race's rich history more than seventy years ago. However the World Champion doesn't seem to be particularly concered about 'Ronde' as her main focus is to win her first Paris-Roubaix Femmes.
"I'm not really thinking 'I want to win this race three, four, five times' or whatever," she told GCN and Cyclingnews on Thursday. "At this moment I'd prefer to win Paris-Roubaix instead of winning the Tour of Flanders for a third time. But when people say this, a hat trick in the Tour of Flanders, of course, it would be really nice but it's not my biggest goal, let's say."
"We will be up against very strong teams, so in the end it's really about the team who wins, and not only me," Kopecky said. "We have conversations before the race about how we want to approach the race, but we don't know what the plans of other teams are, so of course we need to adjust to that as well. We will not start with just one leader, we will start with more, and everybody gets this opportunity."
It may be surprising for the defending winner to not claim leadership in Flanders, but such is the strength and ethos at SD Worx that the Belgian is not expecting her teammates to ride just for her. "Riders like Mischa or Marlen, are perfect riders to have in the breakaway, so I think they need to race according to their qualities. That's the race on Sunday – it has a lot of opportunities for them."
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