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Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) won stage 2 of the Simac Ladies Tour, a 7.2-kilometre individual time trial in the Belgian city of Leuven and took the GC lead.
Fifth-last off the start ramp, the Belgian ITT champion was the only rider to cover the course in less than nine minutes, stopping the clock at 8:59.35 minutes. Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma) started right after Kopecky and came closest to her time, finishing in 9:01.18 minutes.
In the general classification, Markus is now two seconds behind Kopecky, with Wiebes in third place at 13 seconds.
“I am happy to win today, but I would have preferred to start in the rainbow jersey tomorrow,” Kopecky joked after receiving the yellow leader’s jersey on the podium.
“It wasn’t an easy course because you can’t calculate your effort; it’s just seven kilometres all-in to the limit, and that really hurts. But it is something that suits me,” she described her winning effort.
Kopecky is having a spectacular 2023 season with lots of victories, now also including her first Women’s WorldTour ITT win and on home soil.
“It was great to see all the roadside support today; thank you for that. This year is very good, and I know that it can quickly go the other way, so I really want to take everything from this season and enjoy it to the fullest,” she said.
“Tomorrow will be a sprint stage, and this weekend, we’ll have two very tough days with a finish on the Cauberg and then the Arnhem stage with the Posbank on Sunday. I think it will be an interesting weekend,” Kopecky looked ahead to the remaining…
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