Lotte Kopecky will bring the form of her life into the first-ever combined UCI World Championships, where she will aim for multiple world titles across three track events and the road race in Glasgow.
The Belgian turned heads with an opening stage victory in Clermont-Ferrand, wore the yellow jersey for six days, climbed with the best to the summit of the Col du Tourmalet, and then stormed to third place in the time trial in Pau.
She closed out the eight-day race winning the green points jersey and second overall behind her SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering.
“I surprised myself a lot, especially yesterday [stage 7 on the Col du Tourmalet], also with being one of the better sprinters and, in the end, one of the better climbers, also a good time triallist …,” Kopecky said in the post-race press conference while wearing the green jersey.
“This tour was amazing for me. Before, this was not really how I approached this Tour de France. Everything went really good and I recovered every day super good. It’s nice to be second in this Tour de France, winning the green jersey, and also having an amazing team around me.”
Kopecky admitted that the performance that surprised her the most was finishing sixth on the Tourmalet. She formed part of a select chase group that formed over the Col d’Aspen and up the base of the Tourmalet. After Vollering made her winning attack, Kopecky said she settled into a rhythm to see how far she could go surrounded by the best climbers in the world.
She crossed the finish line 3:32 behind Vollering while also ahead of her were only Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep) and Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich).
Although Kopecky had lost the yellow jersey to Vollering on that climb, she went into the closing time trial in fourth overall. However, her performance against the clock, where she finished third behind teammates Marlen Reusser and Vollering, saw her leapfrog both Niewiadoma and Van Vleuten to secure second overall.
“I was quite sure that yesterday I would lose the yellow jersey. This morning, I was fourth in the general classification, but I was thinking that the podium was not impossible,” Kopecky said.
“If I am to be honest, before this Tour, I was not aiming for the GC or thinking about this, so I was like, whatever happens today happens, and I have nothing to lose.
“There was no stress before the time trial, I was just trying to focus on what I…
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