Lotte Kopecky retains Belgian time trial title

Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal Ladies) successfully defended her Belgian national time trial title on Thursday morning, riding to victory in Koksijde over a minute ahead of the next-best finisher.

The 24-year-old's first victory of 2020 on only her second race day saw her beat Sara Van de Vel (Ciclotel) into second place by 1:02, while Julie Van de Velde (Lotto Soudal Ladies) took third at 1:09. Time trial champion from 2014 to 2018, Anne-Sophie Duyck (Parkhotel Valkenburg) was fourth at 1:15.

The race was held on a closed course in the miitary base in Koksijde, with the women taking in two laps for 27.7km of racing in total.

Van de Velde, the seventh of 14 riders taking part to set off, put in the quickest time early on. The 27-year-old was strong at the first checkpoint, but minutes later, Van de Vel swept through 11 seconds faster, while the flying Kopecky was 22 seconds up with a time of 18:42.

Kopecky passed her minute-woman Shari Bossuyt (NXTG Racing) soon after, en route to a surefire victory. Van de Velde improved in the second half with a final time of 39:09 – enough for a medal but still seven seconds off what Van de Vel managed.

After the rest had finished, all that was left was for Kopecky to stay upright and claim another gold medal. She did far more than that though, taking swathes of time on lap 2 to add over 40 seconds to her advantage at the first checkpoint and claim victory.

The Belgian National Championships are split up this year, with the time trials held on August 20 while the road races will be held in Anzegem on September 22.