The last few weeks have served up some absolutely gripping racing in the women’s peloton. Lotte Kopecky took an anticipated record-breaking 3rd victory in the women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, caping off Belgium’s Holy Week in front of a rapturous crowd. However, the World Champion failed to defend her Paris-Roubaix title, as a certain Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) popped up on the startlist, and promptly tore up the Paris-Roubaix rulebook.
As we exchanged the cobbles for the hills of the Ardennes classics, the story of the classics also subtly shifted, from SD-Worx dominating races through Kopecky and Wiebes, to SD-Worx dominating races through Mischa Bredewold at the Amstel Gold race.
The Ronde van Vlaanderen
The 22nd edition of the Women’s finale to Belgium’s festival of cycling, was as brutal as normal, its succession of steep cobbled bergs across 168.8km of road ripping the legs from beneath all but the strongest riders. One of the pre-race favourites, Elisa Longo-Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), was unfortunately forced to abandon the race early on after a nasty crash which left the fate of the race firmly in Lotte Kopecky’s hands. Though the World Champion had serious work to do to finish off the victory.
Nicole Steigenga (AG Insurance-Soudal) was the last survivor from the day’s early break, having fought the peloton off her wheel for 122km in an impressive performance before being caught. Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) was again a constant animator, and it surely won’t be long before the Dutch youngster takes her own victory at the Ronde.
The Oude Kruisberg – Hotond combination with 29km to go was where the leading group began to thin out, suffering under the relentless pace and constant attacks. The likes of Lianne Lippert (Movistar) and Loretta Hansen (Lidl-Trek) made attempts throughout the day to distance Kopecky, but the World Champion doggedly refused to budge from the lead group. Vitally, the rainbow jersey clung to the wheels of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) when the 15-time World Champion attacked over the top of the Oude Kwaremont, joining an incredibly elite 4-woman group which included Lippert and defending Tour de France Femmes champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM - Zondacrypto).
These four, each of them supreme talents in their own right, stayed together right through to the finishing straight, where somewhat inevitably, Lotte Kopecky proved the quickest. As Kopecky took her third Ronde van Vlaanderen crown, simultaneously setting the record for the most wins at the race in the women’s sport, she roared that oh so familiar roar as she zipped across the line, pointing to her bulging bicep to celebrate a ride in which she simply outmuscled her competitors.
Paris-Roubaix Femmes
In five editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, no rider has managed to win more than once, indicating just how tough and unpredictable the race is. With 30 kilometres of brutal, bone jarring, strength sapping cobbles, there are few races as steeped in suffering as Paris-Roubaix. To ride across the finish line in the Roubaix Velodrome, arms aloft in victory, the victor must not only be a consummate handler of their bike, they also need a little bit of luck and the capacity to endure, no matter what the vicious road to hell imparts upon them.
Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) rode a fantastic race, driving the pace high and viciously attacking across the cobbled sectors. Though once again, despite constantly animating proceedings, riding off the front and forcing Kopecky to chase her down, Lidl-Trek's Dutch star couldn’t quite manage to capitalise on her destructive riding. Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) was ruthlessly focused as always, constantly chasing down the World Champion, a yellow and black shadow on the wheel of the Rainbow Bands.
Indeed, given the form of Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes so far this season, SD-Worx were firm favourites to manage a historic Flanders-Roubaix double. The World, and European Champions have been almost unbeatable this spring. At each race Kopecky attacks, drawing the sting from the rest of the peloton as she attempts to get solo and win the race in her own indomitable style. If this fails, the super-team can back it up with the devastating sprint of Wiebes who receives the most luxury of leadouts from Kopecky.
With 25km to go, a very elite group of riders featuring Kopecky, Wiebes, Vos and Letizia Borghesi (EF-Education Oatly) were only 23 seconds behind race leader Emma Norsgaard (Lidl-Trek). It was at this point that 15-time World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) launched the race winning move. She caught Norsgaard and then swiftly dispatched the Norwegian. By the time Ferrand-Prévot reached the famous Carrefour de l’Abre sector, she was 48 seconds clear of the next best placed rider on the road, in what turned out to be an insurmountable gap.
In the wake of the former Olympic gold medallist’s attack, Lotte Kopecky was placed on the front of the chasing group, burying herself to try and haul back the French star. However, in the final few kilometres SD-Worx seemed to implode. With 3km to go, Kopecky called it quits, having burnt everything she had to keep Wiebes in contention. Wiebes did manage to hold on, beating Marianne Vos in a sprint for third place in the Velodrome, but for a team so used to the podium’s top step, anything less is failure.
A week after Kopecky’s rapturous reception in Oudenaarde, the SD-Worx team cut a far subdued silhouette as they tried to unpick just how they’d managed to lose a race in which they had been such firm favourites. In a post-race interview, Wiebes revealed that there may, once again, have been some confusion amongst the Dutch team. She stated that Kopecky had attacked from behind whilst Wiebes had been leading into a cobbled sector, making it difficult for the sprinter to stay with her. Whilst Wiebes was under the impression she was calling the shots for the day, it seems the World Champion had other ideas. It is a familiar tale for the team, struggling to balance the winning desire of two superstars in Kopecky and Vollering (now at FDJ-Suez) in previous years, and if the brewing storm isn’t calmed, malignant rot and bitter jealousy could start to fester.
Whilst SD-Worx have questions to ask of themselves, there will be nothing but joy for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Visma-Lease a Bike. It’s been 10 years since the French star won on the road, but as she rolled across the finish line, arms spread wide, haloed by the spring sunshine and with a minute's advantage on eventual second place Letitzia Borghesi (EF Education - Oatly), Ferrand-Prévot cut a messianic figure. You’d have been forgiven for thinking her last win was only yesterday, such was the confidence with which the French rider had ridden a race that she wasn’t even supposed to start. Instead, Ferrand-Prévot was supposed to be at a high-altitude training camp, ahead of attempting her goal for the season of winning the Tour de Frances Femmes.
She’d also suffered from a variety of infections and fevers in the build-up to the race, only overcoming them on Saturday morning. But no illness, World Champion or a crash on the Auchy-lez-Orchies cobbled sector could prevent Pauline Ferrand-Prévot from becoming the first French woman to be crowned the Queen of one of France’s most iconic races.
Amstel Gold Race
The 11th edition of the Amstel Gold Ladies Race was another example of just how unpredictable this season has been. Another race which had Kopecky (SD-Worx) and Wiebes (SD-Worx) as the pre-race favourites (Wiebes was just beaten by Marianne Vos last year), the day featured 22 climbs, including the iconic Cauberg which comes just before the finishing line and almost 2000m of climbing throughout the day.
Just as in Roubaix however, a daring attack late into what had been a hard day of racing thwarted Vos, Kopecky and Wiebes. As the race entered the final circuit of three climbs which culminated in the Cauberg, Wiebes was still clinging onto a leading group which featured the likes of Blanka Vas (TVL), Kristen Faulkner (EF-Education Oatly), Mischa Bredewold, Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) and Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez) to name a few. Not one of these riders wanted to face the final few kilometres with the prodigious pace of Wiebes in their slipstream however, and they relentlessly attacked in an attempt to distance the European champion.
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Written by Henrik Bassett
