There was a clear line drawn at the start of the year to the Tour de France Femmes for Lotte Kopecky, finishing second in 2023 even as she and the team supported Demi Vollering to victory, so 2025 was the year where she would get her chance to be the supported GC rider.
The World Champion looked every bit ready to take on the challenge and the team shifts meant she was now the clear-cut go-to rider to chase yellow, but that plan began unravelling when Kopecky hit the climbs of the Giro d’Italia earlier this month and languished after being suddenly hit by back pain.
That stymied the preparation, with the rider pulling the plug on the Italian race where she came second last year, and it also introduced an element of doubt about what was ahead.
"I just hope it disappears like it started. And we tried to treat it as good as possible, and that's all we could do," said Kopecky after answering "I hope so" to a query on whether her back was fully recovered.
"At the moment it's pretty good but training and racing are two different things. So we still have to see how it will respond in the race."
Since the Tour de France Femmes reboot, SD Worx-Protime have finished on either the top or second step of the overall podium – or both in the case of 2023 when Demi Vollering won and Kopecky came second – though this year the squad has had a forced refocus.
"You need to be fair with yourself and with your teammates and, yeah, I don't want them to sacrifice or to ride every day full gas for me and then have me saying after six days ‘sorry, but my back is hurting or I cannot do this'. I also don't want to disappoint them," Kopecky told a small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews, in Vannes on Thursday.
The squad that was expected to be all in for GC will now be keeping that in the background, with potential for Anna van der Breggen to weigh in on that overall too.
"For this year, we really have to see day by day and at this moment, I just try to get GC out of my head ... we just need to dare to say we let it go and we are here with a really strong team who can win a lot of stages," said Kopecky.
When asked if that meant the overall was not on her mind at all she added: "I mean we are still going to see day by day but, at this moment, I would be really happy to win a stage."
The ideal chances to kick start those stage wins come quickly, with the opening two providing the lumpy terrain that Kopecky called "perfect for me".
After that, attention may turn to Lorena Wiebes, who delivered two stage wins at the Giro d'Italia, the points jersey and also showed some impressive form on the climbs.
"Stages three and four, on paper, they are the sprint stages, but I think they are still quite difficult finishes, because it's not really, really flat," said Wiebes. Although given the climbing form she has shown and that her extensive list of wins this year include Milan-San Remo after she managed to stay with the top riders on the Poggio, that is likely to play into her hands.
That raises the question of whether or not this year, particularly with the team's GC goals not looming as large, this may be a good year for Wiebes to pursue her first Tour de France green jersey.
"That's, I think, also we need to see day by day," said Wiebes in Vannes. "At the Giro it was not a goal, but because at one point, you get closer to it and you wear it, then you think, 'maybe I can keep it' and then can get some points.
"I mean, if you do really good in the two sprint stages then you get already a lot of points so then it will be stupid to not go for it."
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