Paris-Roubaix Femmes: Lotte Kopecky reveals key role played by team-mates in victory - 'Tried to make me laugh'

Published 06/04/2024 at 17:11 GMT

It was a first Paris-Roubaix Femmes triumph for Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), as she added another title to her bulging palmares. The Belgian had said this was the main goal of her season, and she delivered when it mattered on the brutal parcours in Northern France, edging out Lidl-Trek's Elisa Balsamo and Britain's Pfeiffer Georgi in a frantic sprint.

Kopecky says influence of team-mates key to Paris-Roubaix Femmes triumph - 'Tried to make me laugh'

Lotte Kopecky (SD-Worx - Protime) revealed an unusual reason behind her first Paris-Roubaix Femmes triumph - laughter.

The Belgian pushed the tempo on the front of the race for large parts, and though she did not get away from the bunch, she was in the leading group at the finish and emerged from the six-strong escapees to sprint to a famous win.

After the disappointment of losing the Tour of Flanders last week to Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), she opened up on the role her team-mates played in the days leading up to the fourth edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes.

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Speaking afterwards, she said: "This was the goal of the season, then to also do it is really nice.

"How much confidence the team gave me, actually already the whole season but especially the last week.

"My team-mates tried to make me laugh the last two days as much as possible. I could just really feel how much they believed in me being able to win this race.

"They did an amazing job, and then having Lorena Wiebes in the second group at the end was maybe the key."

As the riders entered the famed Roubaix Velodrome for the culmination of the 148.5km race, Kopecky at one stage looked like she might have lost her chance, sitting at the back on the inside of the track and seemingly without a route to the front.

"It's always nervous," she reflected.

"You are here with two very fast sprinters like [Marianne] Vos and Balsamo.

"One moment I thought I am boxed in, but I had to start the sprint pretty early and I just could keep sprinting."

Kopecky times sprint to perfection to secure first-ever Paris-Roubaix Femmes victory

Kopecky 'a great tactician'

Speaking on Eurosport's The Breakaway, London 2012 gold medallist Dani Rowe analysed how Kopecky managed the closing stages of the race to give herself a greater chance of victory.

Rowe said: "She's a great tactician isn't she?

"We saw that really change when she had [team-mate] Lorena Wiebes there in the group, she was attacking, attacking, attacking - really trying to make the race as hard as she could.

"But then when Lorena Wiebes was dropped she was really, really patient, sat back and let the others do the work, let Lidl-Trek use up their firepower, their energy after being so dominant in the last few races.

"And then she said she was bunched in, but I think that worked perfectly in her favour because the sprint is so different.

"After 148km and all that pave, it's almost like slow motion."

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