Lotte Kopecky follows in Tadej Pogacar's footsteps and wins 2025 Tour of Flanders WE in the Rainbow Jersey!
Cycling
Team SD Worx - Protime's world champion Lotte Kopecky has taken the win at the 2025 Tour of Flanders WE ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Liane Lippert and Katarzyna Niewiadome, after a dramatic finale saw a four-woman sprint for the line in Oudenaarde. In the process, the Belgian makes history as the first woman ever to win in Flanders on three separate occasions.
Seven riders got themselves into the early break of the day including British talent April Tacey and Irish youngster Aoife O'Brien. At 100km to go, the group held a sizeable advantage of more than six minutes. In an early blow to the race, Elisa Longo Borghini was forced to abandon after a crash with 96km left. Also hitting the deck early were notable names Lorena Wiebes and Noemi Ruegg. By 50km to go however, only Nicole Steigenga held the front of the race, around 1:47 clear of the peloton.
Once Steigenga was caught, the tension levels really began to rise, with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Elise Chabbey both falling victim to this with a crash. Both though, managed to get back up and onto their bike, following the moves that split the peloton into an elite 17-woman lead group heading to the final climb of the day at the Oude Kwaremont.
On the cobbled climb, world champion Lotte Kopecky came to the fore, but unlike her male counterpart Tadej Pogacar in the men's race, the Rainbow Jersey couldn't fully separate herself from the rest of the field, bringing Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Liane Lippert and Ferrand-Prevot clear with her. With them rolling through well together, the quartet entered the final 10km around 20 seconds clear of the chase group. By 5km to go, that gap had extended to 40 seconds, meaning victory was all but secured for one of the leading foursome. In the fight for the win, it was Niewiadoma that blinked first, but the Pole couldn't make a telling difference. Then in the sprint Kopecky led from the front and powered clear to a famous win.
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Ah, seems he’s been busy elsewhere! 😆Lozza13-11-2026
- Where is he when you need him!? Wake up man! You’re missing an opportunity!Lozza13-11-2026
- A very true statement made by Johan Bruyneel: "We don’t know for sure about Jonas, because he dropped out of the Tour de France, but he would never have come close to Pogacar. Maybe he would have finished second. He won the Giro in dominant fashion and the Vuelta the year before, but Visma wants to win the Tour." That's exactly what I've been saying the last six months. If Pogi races with Jonas, the most he can be is second... UNLESS... Pogi crashes out or makes a BIG mistake, which is not likely to happen. Either Bruyneel thinks the way I do or he reads my posts. Ad acta!!!PogiSloFans13-11-2026
- TADEJ POGAČAR !!! "Anatomy of a G.O.A.T." OK, that's great!!! I've been saying all along: Tadej Pogačar-Pogi is the G.O.A.T... period. Not only in cycling... but he's the greatest sportsman that ever lived !!! But let's take a look of what real foolishness looks like: We have many many fools, also on this site, saying that Pogi is "boring,"... he's making cycling "boring"??? I can't believe what's comming out of their deteriorating smelly mouths. So I guess Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, Fasto Coppi and Anquetil were also boring!?!? I guess Michael Jordan, Le Bron, Gretzky, Messi, Ronaldo, Shumacher, Novak Džoković, Federer, Rossi, Marquez, Phelps, Michaela Shiffrin, Venus Williams, Bolt, Lewis Hamilton... etc. were all boring. PS: Many cycling "fans" that think that way, have to get a brain scan. Ad acta!!!PogiSloFans13-11-2026
- Ayuso has had enough time. He's always going to be a mediocre to good cyclist... nothing special or astonishing. But he does have many excuses, just like Remco, but Remco delivers good wins on occasions, Ayuso doesn't. Ad acta!!!PogiSloFans13-11-2026
- I agree, Johan Bruyneel made big mistakes, he was involved in the biggest doping scandal in the history of sports... BUT NEVERTHELESS... Bruyneels analysis on bike racing and cyclists is among the best. That's a fact... period!!! I love listening to Spencer Martin and Johan on WEDU-THE MOVE PODCAST, but I don't care about Armstrong and Hincapie. They are both american bull shi***s who like to exaggerate and talk nonsense.PogiSloFans13-11-2026
- the headline is poorly written too. it makes it sound like their plan is to simply wait until he stops.mij13-11-2026
- It doesnt take a genius to understand that Pogi is 1 level above and Pogi is younger that Jonas, so Jonas will not win under ordinary circumstances. Pogi has to crack hard for Jonas to win. It doesn't matter whether you defend Jonas or not , facts remain facts. Jonas himself says his numbers are better than 2022/2023, so Jonas is more or less optimized and we are just see the stochastic variation due to other factors. I think he will retire along with Pedersen in WC denmarkabstractengineer13-11-2026
- They only raced each other during the 2026 Tour, but here's a few metrics to look at. Stage 3 (Granollers to Les Angles): Pogačar won the stage, finishing 2 seconds ahead of Vingegaard (2nd). Del Toro finished 24 seconds behind Stage 6 (Pau to Gavarnie-Gedre / Col du Tourmalet): Pogačar won solo, Vingegaard finished 2nd (losing 2:38), and Del Toro finished 3rd (at +2:57, finishing 19 seconds behind Vingegaard). Here, Jonas Vingegaard outclimbed Isaac del Toro by 19 seconds on the mountain stageawp13-11-2026
- your clinging to the past. Jonas was dropped by del toro many times last year and jonas never managed a climbing numers del toro did in dauphine last year -entire year. Trend is also evident theres no discussion your living in the past, its beent he same with jonas for many years now and only developing, meanwhile del toro is rising and developing greatly. This is all obvious stuff and im not even a del toro fan. No point discussing numbers or this i suspect you dont watch much now but rather think its 2022 still cause this aint hard.miguel13-11-2026
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