Tour of Britain Women: Lotte Kopecky takes back-to-back wins on stage 2 ahead of Henderson

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Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) doubled up at the Tour of Britain Women, winning stage 2 in a sprint of two riders against Anna Henderson (Great Britain). Kopecky's teammate Lorena Wiebes won the sprint of a reduced peloton for third place.

On Horseshoe Pass, Kopecky attacked 1km from the top and Henderson was the only rider able to hold the GC leader's wheel. They built a 40-second gap on the rolling terrain after the climb, and although Liv-AlUla-Jayco and DSM-Firmenich PostNL organised the chase in the group behind, the two leaders came onto the finishing straight with 20 seconds in hand.

Henderson sat on Kopecky's wheel from the flamme rouge but had no reply to the World Champion's sprint in the end.

Kopecky defends the green leader's jersey and is now 17 seconds ahead of Henderson and 34 seconds ahead of Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) going into stage 3.

“Yesterday it was really close, today it was nice to be in the break with Anna [Henderson] and to finish it off in the sprint,” said Kopecky after her second consecutive victory.

“I did a recon of the finish this morning, so I knew what was coming. I kind of expected it [Henderson staying in her wheel] already. It was not a disadvantage to start from the lead, so I didn’t mind."

How it unfolded

The 140.1km stage started and finished in Wrexham, doing a loop through Cheshire before returning to Wales. The main difficulty of the day was the Horseshoe Pass climb, 4.2km at an average gradient of 6.4%, cresting with 26.6km to go.

Franzi Koch (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) went on a solo breakaway early on and was almost four minutes ahead of the peloton. She won the first QOM sprint on Eyton Hill and the intermediate sprint in Johnstown, but by that time her advantage had shrunk to 1:26 minutes, and Koch was caught with 36km to go.

Christine Majerus (SD Worx-Protime) set a hard pace on Horseshoe Pass, reducing the peloton to about 30 riders, and then Kopecky made her move. 

Paternoster jumped on Kopecky’s wheel, and Henderson followed, but Paternoster soon realised she couldn’t keep the pace and dropped back. Henderson went around her to Kopecky’s rear wheel, and the two riders crested the climb with a 15-second advantage. Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain) defended the blue QOM jersey by leading the next group over the top.

A chase group of 13 riders formed where Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) tried to find allies to assist her teammate Abi Smith in the chase. Although Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels) and Dilyxine Miermont (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93) joined in, the gap grew to 38 seconds at the 15km mark as Kopecky and Henderson made good use of the twisting descent.

Kopecky tried to drop Henderson with an attack on a short rise with 11km to go, but the British rider doggedly held her wheel, and the two riders settled into a rhythm again until they reached Wrexham.

In the meantime, the chase group had grown to 21 riders, and Amber Pate (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) was chasing hard in service of Paternoster, but with 20 seconds still left to the front, Kopecky and Henderson would sprint for the victory.

Trying to maximise her chances, Henderson refused to take over on the final kilometre, but Kopecky steadily cranked up the speed on Chester Street and easily held off Henderson to win the stage. 20 seconds later, Wiebes won the sprint for third place.

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