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Lotte Kopecky made the most of a mid-race incident on the Koppenberg that saw SD Worx escape up the road with three riders against Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ). The other SD Worx riders were whittled down, but Kopecky remained strong to outlast Persico, eventually breaking free on the Oude Kwaremont with 18 kilometres and holding the lead all the way to the finish.
“Everybody on Social Media was giving me five stars for this race, then there is pressure. But it’s amazing how we did the race with the whole team,” Kopecky said.
“Persico is a very good rider, if you go to the finish line with her, you are never sure, even after such a hard race, so I wanted to go solo as fast as possible.”
“I think I was deaf when I got up the Kwaremont," Kopecky said of her final attack. "It was a lot of people cheering, that was very nice."
The first part of the 156.6km race was relatively calm with the only aggression coming from Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick Step), who got away with 90 kilometres remaining in the race. She never got a big advantage solo, but she was joined by a bridging attack from Elinor Barker (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) and Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM).
They briefly enjoyed a 45-second advantage but were caught at the start of the Koppenberg, 46 km from the line, when the fireworks began in the race.
In the run-in to the Koppenberg, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) had her rear wheel slip into the gutter and she crashed, leaving her to chase up the Koppenberg on a spare bike
On the steep cobbled climb itself, only Reusser and Persico managed to pedal all the way to the top, with the treacherous slippery cobbles causing Kopecky to unclip and stop at the front of the peloton. That caused a cascade effect down the rest of the main bunch on the narrow roads, and bottlenecked the race at a crucial time.
Kopecky and Wiebes remounted their bikes quickest and bridged over to Reusser and Persico, now at the head of the race with three SD Worx riders.
Silvia Persico was the lone rider left to oppose the SD Worx trio, the UAE Team ADQ rider still happy to contribute to the pace-making.
First Wiebes dropped off, then Reusser couldn’t follow on the Kruisberg when Kopecky accelerated with 30 kilometres remaining. Persico was able to go with the defending champion and the pair extended their lead over the chasing group, primarily led by Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) with a three SD Worx riders sitting on.
The partnership lasted until the Oude Kwaremont, the Belgian star launching clear on the famous cobbled climb to take a decisive lead that she extended over the subsequent climb of the Paterberg. Her lead hovered around 50 seconds for most of the rest of the race as Persico was caught behind by the chasers.
Kopecky saluted the hometown Belgian supporters as she crossed the finish line in triumph with a comfortable margin, and then SD Worx’s joy was doubled as they made it a 1-2 with Demi Vollering sprinting home quickest from the group to claim the next step on the podium.
