Milan-San Remo Women: Lotte Kopecky holds off Noemi Rüegg for sprint victory on Via Roma

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.

Eight seconds later, Wiebes won the sprint for sixth place, raising her arm in celebration of her teammate's victory as she crossed the line.

“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.

How it unfolded

The women’s race started in Genoa, mainly following the coastal Via Aurelia for a 156-kilometre race to San Remo.

It took over an hour for a break to get away, but eventually a front group of nine riders was formed when Eleonora La Bella (Aromitalia-Vaiano), Constance Valentin (Mayenne-Monbana-My Pie) and Sofia Arici (Vini Fantini-BePink) were joined by Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health), Lara Crestanello (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria), Heidi Franz (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), Sara Luccon (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), Bodine Vollering (VolkerWessels), and Eleonora Deotto (Mendelspeck E-Work).

This breakaway built a gap of up to four minutes while Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) tried to bridge the gap but never made it and were reeled in about 75km from the finish.

SD Worx-Protime led the peloton in the chase, steadily reducing the gap to only 1:19 minutes atop the Capo Mele where Maya Kingma (Aromitalia-Vaiano) attacked to go on a solo chase. She kept going for some time but was caught again on the Capo Berta.

The front group fell apart there as well, and only Arici, Franz, and Vollering remained ahead, with the peloton now only 13 seconds behind and reeling them in with 31.4km to go, in time for the Cipressa.

After a hard pace on the lower half, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) attacked twice to force a selection but could not get a real gap. Instead, Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) went away on her own on the last kilometre before the top and was 19 seconds ahead as she started the descent.

Niewiadoma-Phinney led the chasing group down the descent but carried too much speed through a corner and crashed into the barriers. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) and several other riders were unable to avoid the crash while Margaux Vigié (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Debora Silvestri (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) somersaulted over the barrier and down several metres onto a side road below.

Vigié and Le Court-Pienaar could continue the race while Niewiadoma-Phinney and Silvestri had to abandon.

Nooijen had held onto her advantage of a few seconds on the flat between the Cipressa and Poggio, but with the peloton behind her regrouping and swelling to about 50 riders as well as Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) leading the chase, her move was always going to be short-lived.

Nikola Nosková (Cofidis) attacked from the bottom of the Poggio, quickly passing Nooijen. The Czech rider was still ahead when Pieterse jumped from the peloton a kilometre from the top of the climb, taking Rüegg and Kopecky with her and blasting by Nosková.

Gasparrini and Włodarczyk bridged across the gap, and Włodarczyk even got a gap on the other four but was closed down by Kopecky as she rounded the phone booth at the top of the climb. The quintet stayed together on the descent. The Polish rider then took the lead to ensure the group would stay away, and Kopecky was the strongest in the sprint.

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