Lotte Kopecky wins Le Samyn des Dames

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Lotte Kopecky (Liv Racing) took the first win at her new team at Le Samyn des Dames, sprinting to victory from a reduced group of riders in Dour.

The Belgian beat Emma Cecilie Norsgaard (Movistar) and Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo) in the dash for the line, benefitting after the Danish champion went long in the sprint. Hosking jumped onto Norsgaard's wheel as Kopecky followed, saving enough to hit the wind with 150 metres to go and making the pass just metres from the line.

The sprint finale came after a race full of attacks, including the peloton splitting apart less than a third of the way through the race. Kopecky, who had been in numerous small moves off the front throughout, was duly rewarded for her efforts at the finish, taking the sixth win of her career and her first Classics victory.

"This is my first win in the tricolor and my first for Liv Racing," Kopecky said after the race. "What a great start to the season. This is also confirmation of my good form.

"After Omloop, I was disappointed with my fourth place because I missed the podium due to a stupid mistake in the sprint. Now I've shown that the fast legs are there. I feel really good. It's nice to start like this."

Norsgaard, meanwhile, would have to settle for her second runner-up spot in two races for her new team. The 21-year-old Danish champion led the chase group home behind winner Anna van der Breggen at Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

"In Omloop, Lotte already showed how strong she was," Norsgaard said. "So, I don't want to say I'm disappointed that I lost here.

"We studied the course and I wanted to go for the sprint. We wanted to make it a tough race and shake off riders. That worked and then we went full throttle for the sprint. That went pretty well."

How it unfolded

The 10th edition of Le Samyn des Dames took in 92.5-kilometres from Quaregnon to Dour near the French border in west Wallonia. The peloton tackled 15 cobbled sections as well as six named hills, with two and a half laps of a tough finishing circuit to close out the race.

The peloton broke apart early on in the day as the peloton raced over a cobblestone section shortly after the Côte de la Roquette on 30 kilometres, with no breakaway having made it away earlier on. Former world champion Amalie Dideriksen (Trek-Segafredo) missed the split, though the majority of the big names in the peloton made it into the front group.

Kopecky made it into a lead attack group at one point, with Norsgaard, Marlen Reusser (Alé BTC Ljubljana), and SD Worx pair Jolien D'Hoore and Amy Pieters joining her. Jumbo-Visma and Trek-Segafredo were among the teams to chase the move down, though, and things would come back together shortly afterwards.

Once again, Kopecky attempted to break the race up at the front with a further attack 20 kilometres out, with 2020 runner-up Christine Majerus (SD Worx) and Jelena Eric (Movistar) going with her. However, despite the continued aggression of the Belgian champion, that move didn't come off either.

After reining in the attacks from the front, the group would then stick together to the line, with few opportunities to get away in the closing kilometres. The final cobbled section at Rue de Belle Vue, four kilometres from the line, didn't produce any successful moves, either, though Reusser made an attempt to do so.

As a result, the finale was contested among the lead group, eventually coming down to the bunch sprint which Kopecky from which prevailed.