BREAKING NEWS: UCI Women’s star makes history by becoming the first female cyclist to win Tour of Flanders for a…
With less than 20km to go, an attack from 33-year-old Ferrand-Prévot, who retired from mountain biking after winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year, was key to separating the three riders, along with Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto’s Kasia Niewiadoma, from the rest of the peloton on the Oude Kwaremont.
The quartet of elite riders worked their way to gradually build a comfortable gap over the 13 per cent gradient cobbled climb of Paterberg, which was only extended by the time they approached the finish line at Oudenaarde.
As they edged to the one kilometre point before the finish line, a game of cat-and-mouse ensued between the four riders, and it was the 2024 Tour de France winner Niewiadoma who blinked first.
However, her move was swiftly reeled in by double world champion Kopecky, who then took the lead position to control the pace up to the finish line. With only 200 metres to go, she was out of her saddle and sprinting, and there was no looking back for the home hero, who took her record-breaking third Ronde van Vlaanderen title — her first while wearing the rainbow jersey.
Following her victory, Kopecky, who last won at Flanders two years ago, said: “It was a crazy race with lots of crashes in the beginning. It was pretty nervous, and I didn’t have the best legs in the beginning, but I tried to stay calm.
“After a few climbs, my legs felt better and better, then I knew that in the end, I have a pretty good chance. Once we were with the four of us, I was pretty confident, actually.
“After an hour or two, I felt good, so from that moment on, I knew that it was much better than Wednesday, so I just had to be confident. Once we got further into the race, Mischa [Bredewold] was out before the Oude Kruisberg, that was a really good move for us, so I think, again, with our team SD Worx-Protime, we did a really nice race.”
makes history by becoming the first female cyclist to win Tour of Flanders for a third time