European Championships: Lotte Kopecky wins elite women's time trial

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Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) added the European time trial title to her bulging palmarès, speeding to victory on home ground in Hasselt ahead of Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands).

The reigning Belgian time trial champion completed the 31.2km course in a time of 39 minutes at an average speed of 47.984kph to claim her first-ever European title.

Along the way, she led at both intermediate checkpoints, extending her lead as the race went on.

Van Dijk took the silver medal at a deficit of 44 seconds, while Christina Schweinberger (Austria) rounded out the podium with bronze a further 19 seconds back, 1:03 behind Kopecky.

“In this case, I have to thank my coach who drew up a pace plan at the Olympic Games and here,” Kopecky said after her win. “It is a very realistic plan, but those numbers were easily achievable. I still had some reserve myself, so it was a very nice time trial where I could ride the power that was set.

“I gained time at every intermediate point, so that was good for the morale along the way. The decisive part was definitely between 10 and 15km with a headwind. You could make a big difference there.”

The 28-year-old’s win marks the second gold of the Championships for the home nation following Alec Segaert’s triumph in the U23 men’s time trial earlier in the day and the result breaks a three-year streak by Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, who didn’t take part.

Norway’s Katrine Aalerud was the quickest of the early runners, recording a time of 40:25 to take over the hot seat from Mieke Kröger (Germany) by 24 seconds. She’d only last in the provisional lead for a matter of minutes, however, with Van Dijk coming through to set the quickest time at both checkpoints and the finish.

The Dutchwoman was the 15th starter of 27 competitors and had won the title four times in a row between 2016 and 2019. Her time held strong as the next several riders, including Anna Kiesenhofer (Austria), Lisa Klein (Germany), and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Poland) crossed the line.

Vittoria Guazzini (Italy) was the sixth-last woman to finish, taking over second place in the process with a time of 40:10, but she wouldn’t stay on the podium as the late runners came to the line.

Kopecky’s time at the first checkpoint – 13:25 – was three seconds up on Van Dijk, an advantage she extended to 15 seconds at the second checkpoint. By the finish, she had added 29 seconds to that lead to take over the hot seat.

Only Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) and Schweinberger remained out on the course by that point, though both lagged over a minute behind Kopecky. Markus’ time of 40:06 saw her briefly take over the bronze medal position before Schweinberger raced home just two seconds up to secure the final spot on the podium behind Kopecky and Van Dijk.

Results

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