Paris-Roubaix Femmes: World Champion Lotte Kopecky wins thrilling breakaway sprint to take victory

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Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) won Paris-Roubaix Femmes in the sprint of a group of six, going through the outside lane and getting ahead on the finishing straight to take the first Paris-Roubaix for her team. 

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) finished second while Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) pipped Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) to third place.

Amber Kraak (FDJ-SUEZ) and Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) had attacked just after the sixth-to-last pavé sector and built a 15-second gap on a large-ish group. Kopecky, Vos, Balsamo, and Georgi went on the chase on the next sector, Camphin-en-Pévèle, though Georgi couldn’t follow the pace for long. The other three made it to the front just before the Carrefour de l’Arbre, where Vos and Kopecky made several accelerations that could only drop Balsamo, who teamed up with Georgi.

The two chasers came back with 11.2km to go, and although Kraak and Van Dijk tried to get away, the six riders came to the velodrome together, where Van Dijk led out the sprint. Vos accelerated into the final turn and was first onto the home straight, where Balsamo passed her, but Kopecky had the highest speed and won while Vos faded and just lost out to Georgi for third place.

“This was the goal of the season, to also do it is really nice. The team gave me so much confidence the whole season already, but especially the last week. I could really feel how much they believed in me. They did an amazing job, and in the final, having Lorena Wiebes in the second group was maybe the key for me,” said the world champion, Kopecky.

“It’s always nervous, you are here with two very fast sprinters, Vos and Balsamo, so you’re never sure. One moment I thought, ‘now I’m boxed in’, and I had to start the sprint pretty early, but I could keep sprinting,” Kopecky described the velodrome sprint before stepping onto the podium in the rainbow jersey to receive a cobble as the famous winner’s trophy.

How it unfolded

The 148.5-kilometre race began with a loop south of Denain, where Victoire Joncheray (Komugi-Grand Est) went on a solo breakaway, getting an advantage of 1:50 minutes but being caught again within the first hour. 

Defending champion Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) crashed twice; she got back to the peloton but couldn’t repeat last year’s feat, finishing 27th in the end.

The peloton went onto pavé sector 17 (counting down towards the finish) together, and for a long time, the race played out like a yo-yo as the best riders split the peloton over the pavé before things came back together on the asphalt afterwards.

Between sectors 14 and 13, Kopecky borrowed an Allen key from the team car to fix her bike computer mount. Her mechanical fixed, the World Champion then accelerated on sector 12 with 54km to go, forming a group with Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck), Vos, and Georgi. Her teammate Wiebes bridged to the group but soon had to let go again with what looked like a mechanical.

The chasing group returned early on sector 11, Mons-en-Pévèle, due to the work of Van Dijk, making for a front group of 24 riders. Another eight riders came back 40km from the finish, though Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) soon crashed into a ditch.

Van Dijk made two unsuccessful attacks before Jade Wiel (FDJ-SUEZ) rode away from the group. With no real cooperation in the group behind, the Frenchwoman built a 25-second gap but was eventually reeled in late on sector 6.

Right afterwards, Van Dijk and Kraak made their move and went away. Kopecky, Vos, and Balsamo bridged to them with 18.3km to go, Balsamo was dropped on the Carrefour de l’Arbre before returning to the front with Georgi.

At the 10-kilometre mark, the six frontrunners had a 37-second gap on the second group, but as the front group didn’t cooperate well, this shrank to 21 seconds on the penultimate sector, where Kraak made an acceleration that only Kopecky and Vos could follow. Van Dijk closed the gap for Balsamo and Georgi, and after two last attempts by Van Dijk and Kraak were neutralised, Van Dijk took the lead to keep the pace high in support of Balsamo.

The Dutch veteran led the group onto the velodrome with Georgi in her wheel and Vos and Kopecky behind the British champion. Georgi accelerated on the back straight, but Vos and Balsamo came past on either side of her into the final turn while Kopecky was a bit behind but could crank up her sprint in the slipstream.

Vos and Balsamo were head-to-head through the turn, with Balsamo pulling slightly ahead into the home straight, where Kopecky came around her from behind to win. Georgi made a last acceleration to beat Vos to third place, while Kraak brought up the rear in fifth.

Result

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