Lotte Kopecky made a planned determination to lengthen the beginning of her season to put a company goal on Milan-San Remo and among the main Spring Classics earlier than turning her consideration to a GC position on the Excursion de France later within the 12 months.
The 2-time consecutive International Champion will line up as one of the crucial stand-out favourites, despite the fact that she has now not but toed the starting point this season. She mentioned that Milan-San Remo has been her favorite race at the males’s calendar to look at and that she’s going to likes the direction design, in particular the Poggio climb and descent and run-in to San Remo.
“It’s a race that I like the most on the men’s [calendar] especially the final,” Kopecky mentioned in an early-season interview with choose media.
“I only know it from TV, but it is a really nice climb. It might not be as explosive as it is in the men’s race, for us, it will take a little bit longer. But I think it is a nice final climb, and with the descent afterward and a flat finish, it gives opportunities for a lot of riders, and it is a nice race for our team.”
It’s been twenty years because the girls’s box has been introduced the chance to compete in Milan-San Remo, which was once previously known as Los angeles Primavera Rosa held from 1999 to 2005.
Organised via RCS Recreation, the comeback of the ladies’s model of Milan-San Remo now turns into the primary of 4 Monuments introduced to the ladies’s peloton, along the Excursion of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, of which Kopecky has received two of two times at Flanders in 2022 and 2023, and Roubaix in 2024.
“I’m happy that the race is on the calendar,” Koepcky mentioned.
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The ladies’s box will race alongside a 156km path from Genoa to San Remo alongside the scenic sea coast earlier than tackling the long-lasting Cipressa and Poggio climbs, that are prone to come to a decision how the general performs out.
Kopecky’s strengths in one-day races and on climbs imply that she will likely be eyeing the difficult Poggio as a possible position to make her transfer. The Belgian will likely be subsidized via a formidable SD Worx-Protime crew that incorporates any other possible winner in Lorena Wiebes.
Kopecky mentioned {that a} not on time get started has allowed her to get well from a protracted season closing 12 months, which ended with any other elite street race international identify in September and an total victory on the Simac Girls Excursion.
“There will be some changes. I’ve taken it a lot easier in my build-up to the season. The season will look different than last year. We will try to approach it differently than before,” noting that she spent a while at an altitude coaching camp earlier than her racing season starts.
“The plan to start at Milan-San Remo, so that I could have an easier build-up. The load at Simac was much more than expected [end of 2024]. So, I need to be a bit easier [start to this season] because of some discomfort in my knee, so we stuck to this plan to start at Milan-San Remo.”
Regardless of how the race ends on Saturday in San Remo, Kopecky will then flip her consideration to one of the different main Classics, however her largest function this 12 months will likely be to lead the SD Worx-Protime to a yellow-jersey victory on the Excursion de France.
Kopecky has grown as one of the crucial most sensible contenders within the Grand Excursions lately. She completed 2d total on the 2023 Excursion de France Femmes and 2d total on the Giro d’Italia closing 12 months, proving that she may climb with the most productive at the iconic slopes of the Col du Tourmalet and Blockhaus, respectively.
She stated that adjustments had to be made to her coaching to deal with her targets for the French Grand Excursion, this 12 months. Requested if her intention to strengthen on climbs intended a possible loss to her explosiveness within the dash, or one-day races similar to Milan-San Remo or Excursion of Flanders, Kopecky didn’t have a definitive solution.
“It depends on how we train. I think I have been able to manage it well; to keep those components balanced, between being explosive and climbing well,” she mentioned.
“Maybe I will try to climb better, and maybe a little less explosive but I will still be one of the more explosive riders in the bunch so, I don’t see any problem in this.”
