Lotte Kopecky preparing for Tour de France Femmes mission: “It will be all hands on deck to not lose time in the mountains”
Cycling
Lotte Kopecky has set her sights on one major goal for 2025: winning the Tour de France Femmes. After securing back-to-back world championship titles, she is determined to take the next step in her career.
Following the spring classics, Kopecky will head to an altitude training camp to prepare for the Tour. With Demi Vollering’s departure from SD Worx-Protime, she is poised to become the team’s undisputed leader for the race.
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Kopecky came close to victory in 2023, finishing second in the Tour de France Femmes. Reflecting on her past performances, she believes her experience in the Giro d'Italia Donne provides a stronger foundation.
"Second place in the Giro last year gives me more to hold on to than second place in the Tour. Those are the results I'll take with me to the Tour. In that Tour where I came second, I was lucky to have a 45-second lead for the stage to the Tourmalet," she told Wieler Revue.
The Belgian star is aware that replicating her previous advantage will be difficult. "I probably won't get that freedom anymore. It will be all hands on deck to not lose time in the mountains. In the Giro I was one of the better climbers in that very tough stage to Blockhaus. That gives me confidence for the future."
Kopecky will also benefit from the return of Anna van der Breggen, who has committed to supporting her at the Tour. The dynamic within the team will be different compared to her partnership with Vollering.
"I complement Anna more than I did with Demi Vollering. I think that is mainly due to Anna as a person. I think Demi would have had a lot of trouble saying that she has to ride in my service during the Tour. Something she has every right to do, by the way."
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- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025
- In Track and Field, there's Usain Bolt in the sprints and Kenya's Kipchoge in the marathon. Though Bolt can quite easily beat Kipchoge in the 100m dash, he probably won't even finish a marathon. Tadej won't beat Mathieu in a sprint, yet he wins the TDF while MVDP languishes in 50th place. Both are great champions in their respective fields, but my admiration goes to Tadej for trying.FredMan23-03-2025
- They went into the race as co-leaders!frieders323-03-2025
- He can win that sprint if he plays it right but leaving tha gap was ridiculous ! A spring after 6+ hours isn't a guarantee for MVDPfrieders323-03-2025
- The climbs are steeper on Flanders giving Pogi the advanatge as we saw before when he won!frieders323-03-2025
- VDP is best in a short sprint, so Pog was purposely leaving a gap in hopes that VDP wouldn't have enough to sprint for 310 meters at the end of 300 KM. Kwiatkowski did the same thing to Sagan at that same point and won because of it.acem8223-03-2025