Lorena Wiebes prefers to "end the spring with a victory at Roubaix" over Tour of Flanders title
Cycling
Team SD Worx - Protime, even without Demi Vollering among their ranks, will have multiple candidates to finish high up in the results of the upcoming Monuments; Paris-Roubaix and before that the Tour of Flanders. European champion Lorena Wiebes could add another to her Milano-Sanremo triumph already this weekend at De Ronde.
"I don't think so," she answers immediately and clearly when asked about Sunday by Sporza. "I hope to postpone that for another week. It's nice that I've already won one monument with Sanremo, but to really end the spring well, that would have to be with a victory at Roubaix."
Wiebes immediately reveals it: she wants to become the cobblestone queen on Saturday 12 April. As a result, she is even skipping the Scheldeprijs next week, the sprint race where she had been undefeated for past 4 years. "I'm not starting there to be fresher for Paris-Roubaix. Last year I noticed that I wasn't super in Roubaix."
"The Scheldeprijs can be an easy race, but with wind and rain that is not the case. Then you have to recover for a while," she points out. But it will be an usual feeling to not defend her crown this year: "It feels very strange to skip that race."
Tour of Flanders first
Before we get to France, Wiebes first has to get to work in Flanders. What did she remember from the reconnaissance on Thursday? "I rode up the Oude Kwaremont again. Now I know how long it is. Hopefully I can get over the Oude Kwaremont and then I'll be in a second group behind Lotte (Kopecky). Then I can be used as a trump card if she gets caught."
"I hope to be supportive. But if I'm still there, it doesn't mean I have to sprint. Lotte was also the fastest in Dwars door Vlaanderen." Is Wiebes ready to completely sacrifice her ambitions for her Belgian teammate? "You shouldn't think about it too much. Then you start forcing things and it doesn't work. I have to approach the race like all the others. If I have to help out, I will. I know how Lotte prefers to ride through the peloton. I hope the audience can go wild again."
Normally Kopecky should be the better of the two though: "I think Lotte is definitely a step higher. I believe she will be very strong. Her feeling was not good on Wednesday, but everything can be different on Sunday. You just have to keep trusting. Her peak is also planned for later and everyone can have a bad day."
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