Double world champion: First highlight for Lotte Kopecky: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

It was an ambitious project: for the 2025 season, Lotte Kopecky subordinated everything to the big goal of finishing at the front of the Tour de France. She had already finished second in the most difficult stage races on the women's racing calendar, the Tour de France Femmes and the Giro d'Italia Women, which whetted her appetite for more. However, her attack on the yellow jersey failed badly last year. She abandoned at the Giro a few weeks earlier and then finished 45th overall in France, 1:16 hours behind the winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The Belgian never played a role in the battle for overall victory. An eleventh place on the stage was her best result of the day. Her season was saved by the fact that she had previously won the Tour of Flanders for the third time in April. At Milan-San Remo, she took over for her even faster team-mate Lorena Wiebes; the Dutchwoman also took the lead at Paris-Roubaix. Kopecky, the road world champion in 2023 and 2024, had already focussed entirely on her ambitions at the Tour.

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No ambitions in the overall standings for the time being

"I'm certainly not satisfied with the past season. But I learnt a lot," says Kopecky, looking back on the past season. "I didn't show what I can do at the Tour. And I found out that it's not for me." She means subordinating an entire season to a single goal. She does not want to repeat the project for the time being. The 2026 tour is not in her focus. "It would be too much of a risk to put everything on it again," she emphasises. At best, there will be another attempt as a classics rider if the course is tailor-made for her. But a Tour course made for classics specialists? That is not to be expected.

Focus on the spring classics

Now the 30-year-old wants to return to her old strengths. She announced this at the presentation of her team SD Worx for the 2026 season. "I want to concentrate on what I'm good at," she said. She means the spring classics. "These three months are the most important part of the season for me," she emphasised. The first highlight will be the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February (28 February), followed by starts at the Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo in March and the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in April. She will have to share the lead role in some of these races with Dutch team-mate Lorena Wiebes, currently the fastest sprinter in the peloton. "Lorena and I have to communicate clearly," emphasises Kopecky, who has strengths in similar races to the faster sprinter Wiebes. However, she does not see any rivalry within the team. The Belgian points to successful years in the past when this division of roles worked well. At the team presentation, Wiebes also explained that her big highlight in the spring will be the Amstel Gold Race in her home country, the Netherlands. For Kopecky, there are still interesting opportunities to start in one-day races at the end of April. "Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a race that I can win," says the former world champion. She was fifth there last year.

Start of the season at the European Track Championships

Kopecky's season starts on the track on 1 February. She then wants to compete in the European Championships in Konya, Turkey. "That's where I'll see where I stand," said the multiple track world champion. At the team presentation, she emphasised that she is healthy, fit and "happy". This winter, she refrained from competing in cyclocross, which is particularly popular in her home country. In the past, she had competed in the national championships and some World Cups. She is looking ahead and wants to quickly forget the "very bad year" of 2025.