"Super happy that I could win today in the white jersey and white shorts. That means more to me than the third win" - Lotte Kopecky makes Tour of Flanders history
Cycling
Making Tour of Flanders history, Lotte Kopecky became the first woman to take a 3rd career win at the iconic Belgian Monument on Sunday afternoon, sprinting to the victory in a tight, four-woman fight to the line.
"I feel good. It was a crazy race with many crashes at the start. It was very nerve-wracking, and I didn’t have good legs in the beginning," explains the 29-year-old of Team SD Worx - Protime in her post-race interview afterwards, having always retained hope despite her admittedly slow start to the race. "Then I knew I had a strong sprint, and when we were down to four riders, I was full of confidence. After two hours, I felt good - much better than Wednesday. And with the team, we raced really well."
"What was the crucial moment? Mentally, it was the Kruisberg, where I felt the group was thinning out more and more. And when we were down to four after the Kwaremont, I had to survive the Paterberg and then ride to the finish. At that point, I had a good chance, and that’s how I executed it," Kopecky continues.
In the finale, Kopecky was up against the trio of Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Liane Lippert and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. "It was difficult with the headwind. I had to stay on Niewiadoma’s wheel immediately and not hesitate. I stayed tight against the barriers and couldn’t let the pace drop too much. Then I had to launch my sprint when they started theirs," analyses the world champion of the dramatic finale.
And as mentioned, it's a history making 3rd career Tour of Flanders win for the current world champion. "It doesn’t mean that much, to be honest. I’m super happy that I could win today in the white jersey and white shorts. That means more to me than the third win," she concludes, noting her point to biceps celebration as she crossed the line. "That wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. I had thought about it. It’s because I have really strong biceps!"
HISTORIC HAT-TRICK!
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 6, 2025
🇧🇪 Lotte Kopecky wins the Tour of Flanders for a third time! 🌈 pic.twitter.com/3Gljn5ZOCK
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- Coz it’s not an Olympic year ;-)Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- Rock/hard place, still need the points.Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- These days you get paid a lot better to suck it up so I guess there are fewer complaints now ;-) Anyway, the faster bike argument these days is about as significant the whiter washing powders, only instruments can “feel” the difference unless a manufacturer makes a major cock-up. There is always one exception though, a rider that’s more “comfortable” on a slightly slower bike will probably be faster than on a faster uncomfortable one in all but the shortest time trials, the mental fatigue of discomfort is often ignored, in fact many mental tweaks have probably not been integrated yet, the most interesting topic of the future will be what will be considered mental doping and what will be considered acceptable, anyone?Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- 2011 won by wheel sucker Cadel Evans and 2015 Chris Frome with Team Sky.
James2631815-04-2025 - Hopefully the women won’t be requesting equal prize money as for the men’s race. Even an average week long men’s race is harder than this travesty.
UltimateOpportunist15-04-2025 - So is Pogacar, whose rivals are van der Poel in the monuments and Vingegaard at the Tour, doing the same with his limited calendar of race days?RidesHills15-04-2025
- An interesting description, but I think it misses his motivations. He meets a goal and moves on. Van der Poel does race the Tour, though lately as lead out for Philipsen, after achieving the goal of wearing yellow one day. Same with the Giro, he met his goal and moved on. But yes, lately that sure looks like winning the monuments more than anything else.RidesHills15-04-2025
- Totally agree, if only for the reason that it sends the totally wrong message not to treat it that way, let’s get drunk then we can do stupid things without much punishment, and the drunker the safer. In fact, if alcohol is accepted as a reason for turning to bad behaviour, perhaps representatives of the industry should systematically also be punished financially when there are convictions.Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- I mean the year before cables were external aspect should help narrow down the options as that can only be 1 year if you look at every bike it's the year cables disappeared.HoopoeChai15-04-2025
- If other riders just give up when VDP and Pog turn up to race why bother at all. Sad to hear this attitude and there is the problem riders saying we have lost before the start . We have seen loads of time both riders can be beaten. Less neg and more positive.paultryan200215-04-2025