– Lotte Kopecky world champion again
The Belgian, titled last year, won the Worlds road race on Saturday in the rain in Zurich. She beat Chloé Dygert and Elisa Longo Borghini.
Lotte Kopecky won the sprint on Saturday in Zurich.
AFP
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The Belgian Lotte Kopecky retained her title of road cycling world champion on Saturday in Zurich by winning under downpours in front of the American Chloé Dygert and the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini.
Already crowned last year in Glasgow, the 28-year-old Flemish sprinter beat a group of six riders to crown a magnificent year during which she notably won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de Romandie.
On the Swiss side, Zurich’s Noemi Rüegg took 11th place, three minutes behind the Belgian. Geneva’s Elise Chabbey finished 23rd, Zug’s Elena Hartmann 40th and Bern’s Jasmin Liechti 72nd. Like many other runners, Caroline Baur and Linda Zanetti did not finish the event.
Vollering frustrated
The other big favorite, the Dutchwoman Demi Vollering, finished only in fifth place, a new frustration for the woman who had already lost the Tour de France by four seconds this summer.
However, Vollering was undoubtedly the strongest on Saturday, but it paid for both a sometimes incomprehensible team strategy on the part of the Netherlands and its own profusion of efforts to lose Kopecky.
The Belgian was sometimes let go, as during the last ascent of Witikon on the final circuit in and around Zurich. But she showed remarkable composure and tactical sense to come back and outsprint all her opponents in terrible weather conditions.
Chilled scoops
“It was raining, it was cold. With three laps to go I was freezing, but I tried to stay calm. When Demi attacked on the long climb, I struggled but I got back to my rhythm, and in the end it came down to nerves. You had to keep your cool and use your energy at the right time,” said Lotte Kopecky, now a two-time world champion.
She also wanted to offer her condolences to the family of Muriel Furrer, the 18-year-old Swiss runner who died after a fall in the junior race on Thursday.
“Seeing the Swiss runners cry during the minute of silence at the start is not something you want to see. It’s a very difficult time for them too,” she said.
The big return to the road of Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, eagerly awaited ten years after her world title, was cut short. Quickly left behind, the Olympic mountain bike champion in Paris dismounted around fifty kilometers from the goal.
AFP
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