"It’s a brutal climb. It doesn’t lie" - Lotte Kopecky fails to make impact on the Mur de Huy at La Fleche Wallonne 2025

For the second successive year, Lotte Kopecky has left La Fleche Wallonne Femmes disappointed. Although her 12th placed finish in 2025 was an improvement on last year's performance, the world champion was still some way off the fight for victory between Puck Pieterse and Demi Vollering.

"Yeah, it was tough, but honestly, it wasn’t too bad overall," reflects a not too disappointed Kopecky in her post-race interview with Sporza afterwards, citing a lack of positioning ahead of the final climb as her leading mistake. "The Mur de Huy — it’s a brutal climb. It doesn’t lie. My teammates did a great job getting me into position, but even that wasn’t enough for me. I didn’t start in the best spot — and that’s on me."

"There’s not much you can make up for after that. Starting in the top five would have been ideal, but that didn’t happen — and then it becomes really hard," concludes the Team SD Worx - Protime leader, not getting too downhearted ahead of this weekend's battle at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. “Of course you want to do well here, so I am a bit disappointed. Can I win here one day? That’s a tough question… I don’t really have an answer right now.”