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Can anyone challenge Lotte Kopecky at De Ronde van Vlaanderen (the Tour of Flanders), as she looks for a third victory in a row? Last year SD Worx was so dominant that Kopecky's teammate Demi Vollering took second. But Marianne Vos is back on the start list for the first time since 2013, and she is in top form. And there's always an opportunity for a break-out performance of a new talent, like Puck Pieterse, who is on the start list.
Stage 7 of La Vuelta Feminina was almost tailor-made for Marianne Vos (Visma Lease-a-Bike), an uphill drag after a long day in the cross-winds. What can we say about the greatest of all time, she knows how to get there safely and has the snap to finish. And her team controlled the breakaways, including a decently strong one spurred by Olympic champ Anna Kiesenhofer (Roland).
Vos was in good position heading into the final left-hander, right behind Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek). The group was headed by Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale), who had a nice lead-out from teammate Alison Jackson and then hammered the climb. Faulkner would take second on the stage, despite doing a lot of work on the front. Her climbing ability reminds us that she took second in the Tour de Suisse in 2022. It's nice to see such a new team like EF so active in this Vuelta.
Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) started out of position (what is going on with that team?) but closed to fourth on the stage, right behind ELB, so the GC is unchanged going into the final mountaintop stage.
It seemed like the only question was how SD Worx-Protime would win Itzulia Women, not if the team would win, so dominant it has been in this race since it was first held. The answer, it came today, was with Demi Vollering in a scorching mountain solo attack that no one could answer, and a 30km breakaway.
Fellow SD Worx teammate Mischa Bredewold, who had held the flourescent yellow jersey since stage 1, took second on GC, with Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) in third. It had been a real battle for the bottom step on podium, with Mavi Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco), Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), and Olivia Baril (Movistar) mere seconds behind.
They call her the GOAT for a reason! When Shirin van Androoij (Lidl-Trek) broke away from the other five leaders, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease-a-Bike) was the only one fast enough to respond and go with her on the winning move of Dwars door Vlaanderen.
As van Androoij's teammate Elisa Longo Borghini sat on in the group of Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-ProTime), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceunick), and Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla - Jayco), Vos and van Androoij powered away, until it was clear that the victory would be down to the two. Van Androoij stopped cooperating with Vos with a couple kilometers left, but there was no stopping Vos, who led out the sprint and won by a bike length.
Paternoster was the fastest of the group behind, winning the sprint for the last step on the podium ahead of Kopecky.
Last year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes was a triple-crown victory for Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), after she won the 2023 editions of Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. This year she doesn't appear quite as dominant, but is still a favorite for the race. Other contenders include Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), who has been very strong this spring, or Marianne Vos (Visma Lease-a-Bike), who has actually never won Liège-Bastogne-Liège but has been back in great form. Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) cant' be ruled out, and we can always hope that an unexpected winner will emerge—we love an exciting and unexpected race!
Lotte Kopecky, Paris-Roubaix champion in the rainbow jersey. SD Worx-Protime finally added the Hell of the North to its team palmares.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL) round out the podium.
Death, Taxes, and Lorena Wiebes winning the sprint
Both Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes hit the deck in this morning's Nokere Koerse, but it still wasn't enough to stop them from repeating their one-two (respectively) finish from last year. (And the year before, with the order switched—are we tired of superteams yet?)
Lily Williams from Human Powered Health took third, a nice result for her!
