Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) won the women’s Milano-San Remo, beating Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) and Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) in a sprint of five.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) had attacked on the Poggio with Rüegg and Kopecky on her wheel, and Gasparrini as well as with her teammate Dominika Włodarczyk bridging to them. Włodarczyk kept going and opened a gap, but Kopecky had almost closed that down going into the descent.
Włodarczyk led the group down most of the descent before Pieterse took over, but the five riders entered the final 2.3km together, about 10 seconds ahead of the next group.
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Włodarczyk worked to keep the pace up for Gasparrini, but the Italian was positioned at the back of the group and thus too far behind when Kopecky launched her sprint at the 200-metre mark, holding off Rüegg and Gasparrini to win. Pieterse finished fourth in the small group at the front, while Włodarczyk was four seconds back in fifth.
“It’s amazing. I had the full support from the team today and I was really confident after the win on Wednesday [in Nokere Koerse]. For us, the whole race just fell into place,” Kopecky said after the finish.
“Our team took the responsibility when we had to, everyone did a really great job to bring us in the right place towards the climb, and I was really happy that I could finally answer an attack on the climb. Going into the descent with the five of us, I knew that I just had to be patient, and I also knew that Lorena was still behind. I think I started my sprint on the perfect moment, and I’m super happy that I finished it off.
“I was very attentive for a late attack from the one who was behind [Gasparrini]. I knew that I could not let that happen, But I think we were all fast in the sprint, so we gambled on the sprint. And I also know that I have fast legs,” the 30-year-old Belgian described the final.
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