The fanatics observing the revived girls’s race at Milan-San Remo can have noticed Lotte Kopecky’s remarkable show of teamwork that resulted in her SD Worx-Protime teammate Lorena Wiebes profitable the Italian Monument in a discounted team dash alongside the By means of Roma in San Remo.
“I think almost every win is, most of the time, thanks to someone on our team,” Kopecky advised the clicking on the end line after she produced an enormous effort to carry again late-race attacker Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) within the final kilometres, in order that Wiebes will have an opportunity to dash for the victory.
However what the Global Champion mentioned she would really like everybody observing to grasp, is that just about each victory of the season comes all the way down to the beef up of a crew.
“In the beginning, we have helpers like Elena Cecchini or Femke [Gerritse], who help with positioning, and these things cost a lot of energy. It is something people [watching the race] do not see.
“They see the remaining two kilometres the place I’m pulling for Lorena, however they don’t see what the opposite teammates have accomplished at first and you will need to point out.”
Kopecky and Wiebes were both favourites to win the revived Monument, which offered the women’s peloton a 156km route from Genoa to San Remo. The course saw the peloton compete along the scenic coastline before tackling the iconic Cipressa and Poggio climbs, which were always likely to decide how the finale played out.
In the end, a reduced group formed over both Cipressa and the Poggio, but Longo Borghini stole away from the field after the hectic descent off the Poggio, and it all but appeared that she had won the race, until TV footage panned to the chasing field led by Kopecky, to bring the Italian rider back for her teammate Wiebes to sprint.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
SD Worx-Protime played the final perfectly with Wiebes taking the victory ahead of Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly).
“It used to be a pleasant race. It used to be an excessively rapid race with a tailwind and it used to be a pleasant race and a pleasant ultimate,” Kopecky said, noting that she didn’t think a breakaway could succeed given the strong tailwind out along the coastline.
“The highest riders, this present day, are just about on the identical stage. It makes it tougher for one rider to face out. I feel we stood out lately. “With the tailwind, the speeds were high and that made it pretty hard for a breakaway to go out. But it was a nice race.”
Kopecky made some important adjustments to her programme this yr with a season’s get started – and center of attention – on Milan-San Remo prior to she turns to a choice of Spring Classics forward of her position as a GC contender on the Excursion de France. She is obviously in most sensible shape and happy along with her efficiency, and he or she used to be in a position to assist along with her teammate’s victory.
“I’m very satisfied. It was my first race, so it was a little bit to see how I felt in the race. The goal was to win the race with the team and in the final, we executed it perfectly,” she mentioned.
Kopecky has already gained 3 Monuments, two times on the Excursion of Flanders and as soon as at Paris-Roubaix. Requested if she concept she may win Milan-San Remo at some point, now that she has skilled it firsthand, she responded, “I think it is a race I’m able to win one time, yes.”
