Crossing the finish line of the Ronde van Vlaanderen as a triumphant winner, Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx - Protime) was all smiles at the mention of the upcoming picture with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the podium of the Ronde van Vlaanderen 2025.
For the second time, nine years after Lizzie Armitstead (now Deignan) and Peter Sagan, two reigning UCI World Champions would display their rainbow jersey side by side to celebrate victory in the belgian Monument that unites the male and female pelotons as well as millions of fans, in Belgium and around the world, since the inception of the women’s edition in 2004.
“It feels good!”, the Belgian icon celebrated, not only flying the rainbow colours at the pinnacle of Flanders Classics, but also making history on her own: she is the first rider to claim three victories in the women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, thus matching the likes of Achiel Buysse, FIorenzo Magni, Eric Leman, Johan Museeuw, Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and Mathieu van der Poel in the men’s event.
Kopecky is a unique champion. A queen of Flanders. And her victory also highlights the strength of her team, still prominent in this spring campaign after Demi Vollering left SD Worx - Protime to join FDJ-SUEZ and reshuffle the deck in the UCI Women’s WorldTour.
“I was pretty confident actually”
“I was pretty nervous and I didn’t have the best legs in the beginning”, Kopecky acknowledged after powering to victory in Oudenaarde ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//Sram zondacrypto). “But I tried to stay calm and my legs felt better and better after a few climbs, so I knew I would have a pretty good shot in the end. Once we were the four of us, I was pretty confident actually.”
The UCI World Champion notably praised the impact of her teammate Mischa Bredewold (13th), who went on the move early on the Oude Kruisberg, while Anna van der Breggen narrowly missed on the top-10, finishing 11th in a group that saw Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) sprint to 5th. Lorena Wiebes finished a little further behind (17th), as she couldn’t cope so well with the sequence of cobbled ascents.
But Kopecky felt “more or less” in control to take over from her teammates and claim her first UCI Women’s WorldTour of the season, confirming her dominance in Flanders, where she’s also won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (2023), the Danilith Nokere Koerse (2023, 2024), the Lotto Belgium Tour (2021) as well as taking National Champion titles and also becoming the ITT European Champion last summer.
Heading to Roubaix
Kopecky’s home triumph follows an impressive string of wins for her teammate Wiebes. After the UCI World Champion led her to victory in Milano-Sanremo, Wiebes carried on with successful sprints in the Classic Brugge-De Panne, where she got the better of Chiara Consonni (Canyon//Sram zondacrypto) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), and in Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields, where she had dominated Balsamo and Consonni last year. This time, Wiebes took her 100th professional victory on the road, Balsamo finished 2nd again and Charlotte Kool (Picnic - PostNL) rounded out the podium.
After Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) crashed out of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Kopecky - Wiebes duo is coming hot on Vollering’s heels at the top of the UCI Individual World Ranking. And they’re expected to shine as well in the next UCI Women’s WorldTour event, Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, where Kopecky claimed a historic victory last year, already wearing the rainbow jersey, while Wiebes finished 7th.
As the stars of the women’s road peloton leave Belgium and head to the north of France, will Team SD Worx - Protime’s rivals turn the tables? The peloton will then face hillier classics, with the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition ahead of La Flèche Wallonne Féminine and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes to wrap up April before facing demanding Spanish stage races in May.