SD Worx-Protime are keeping the faith in Lotte Kopecky amid her struggles at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, despite their dreams of her competing for the yellow jersey ending on the opening two hilly stages.
The plan all season had been for the world champion to switch her previous stage-hunting ambitions for a push for the general classification, having finished second at the Tour de France Femmes in 2023 and Giro d'Italia Women last year, without even aiming to.
But with a lingering back injury affecting her, Kopecky had to walk back that goal even before the race's start, with her performances in the Brittany Grand Départ confirming there were no illusions from the Belgian. She was already 2:50 down at the start of stage 3.
"We can't say [what went wrong] now. To be honest, we don't know yet," said team manager Erwin Janssen to Nieuwsblad, unperturbed by her performance.
"Riders aren't robots. Otherwise, we would have succeeded. Lotte worked incredibly hard. She gave it her all more than ever, sacrificing everything to be at her best in the Tour. That didn't work out.
"After the Tour, we'll evaluate this together with her management. Did we make the wrong choices? Did we make mistakes as a team? What can we learn from this? We don't need to do that now, during the excitement of the Tour."
Kopecky quickly changed tack, riding in a support role for Lorena Wiebes during her two sprint victories, and she will continue to support Anna van der Breggen into the final three stages, who starts Friday's stage 7 in fifth, 35 seconds behind Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal).
While the world champion hasn't expressed clear displeasure at being well away from her dominant best, she's stayed the course, and Janssen assured this was for the best before a hopeful return to top form later in the season.
"She's not feeling great. And I understand that. Lotte is a true winner. A killer who's so focused on the Tour," he said. "Personally, I think it's pointless for her to stay home right now. Being together at a low point is part of it.
"All great champions have a down period, even Tadej Pogačar. You have to accept that. And we've told her that too. Lotte has a contract until 2028 and will remain our figurehead. We're incredibly happy with her.
"After the Tour, Lotte just needs to clear her head, and then we'll make a plan for the coming years. She can still win some great races this season. There's another World Championship coming up, you know?"
Having lost Demi Vollering to FDJ-Suez, SD Worx-Protime ceded most of their GC power, and with Kopecky unable to step into that role, and Van der Breggen still building in her return from retirement, Janssen suggested new blood could be the way forward.
"I'm convinced we're still the best team in the Classics. We've always been used to competing for the overall victory in the Grand Tours, but that's different now," said the team boss, admitting that budget constraints will have their effect, though.
"This means we'll have to invest in strengthening our climbing skills again. No big name has signed yet, but we're working on it.
"We've often been the trendsetter in women's cycling over the past ten years. But the competition has increased enormously. Many men's teams used to have a women's team 'just because,' but everyone is gradually starting to see the potential of women's cycling in terms of media interest and sponsorship value.
"As a result, the budgets of our competitors have grown significantly. For a long time, we had the second-largest budget in the peloton, but now we've dropped to fourth place."
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