Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) capped off a successful season by securing the world title in the Points Race at the UCI Track World Championships in Roubaix, France on Sunday.
The Belgian multi-discipline rider said that her new rainbow jersey felt special given the double crashes on the track that took her out of contention for a medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
"After the Olympics, where everything went wrong, here everything went right. It adds to the motivation for everything that comes next," Kopecky said in a post-race interview.
On the road with Liv Racing, Kopecky took victories at Le Samyn des Dames and a stage of the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour, second place at Gent-Wevelgem, and four fourth places at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Nokere Koerse, and Brugge-De Panne. She defended her road and time trial titles at the Belgian Championships and then won the overall classification at the Lotto Belgium Tour.
She represented Belgium at the Olympic Games where she finished fourth in the road race, however, back-to-back crashes in the Madison and the Omnium left her with an injured hip and disappointed to leave Tokyo without a medal.
Kopecky then finished seventh, despite being the favourite, at her home Flanders World Championships, and an "unlucky" race saw her finish 15th at the inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes later in the season.
At the Track World Championships, Kopecky took silver medals in the Elimination Race and Omnium, before securing the gold medal in the Points Race where she beat Katie Archibald (Great Britain) and Kirsten Wild (Netherlands).
"I already had two silver medals and I didn’t know, I was like, I already have two silver medals. I cannot be a gold medallist now. But the race was perfect. I had a really good feeling and I felt really strong, and I think I also had a smart race," Kopecky said.
