World champion Lotte Kopecky has but to check the route of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes however needs to see how nicely she will carry out in a Grand Tour with totally centered coaching.
Simply probably the most versatile rider within the girls’s peloton, Kopecky has proven Grand Tour profitable potential, regardless of her one-day experience, with runner-up finishes on the Tour de France Femmes and Giro d’Italia Ladies previously two seasons and total victory on the UAE Tour.
Kopecky faces a number of challenges if she is to win the Tour in 2025. The route consists of a troublesome set of 9 phases and the switch of former teammate Demi Vollering to FDJ-Suez, means she isa now an enormous rival quite than teammate.
“Two years in the past I completed second within the Tour, this 12 months second within the Giro. Twice with out particular preparation. So throughout the staff, the query is: what if that preparation is there?,” Kopecky revealed to Het Nieuwsblad after selecting up her fifth Flandrienne of the 12 months trophy
“My coronary heart is in fact with the Classics, these are the races I like probably the most. De Ronde and Roubaix will certainly stay on my programme however I’ve already gained these. That’s the reason I undoubtedly need to go for a classification in a Grand Tour at the least as soon as in my profession.”
Highlights of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes route embody the Col de la Madeleine and Col de Joux Aircraft, with the pair of brutal climbs a part of the ultimate weekend set to determine the fourth race for the maillot jaune.
Whereas Kopecky hasn’t correctly but analysed the nine-day route, resulting from being on vacation in South Africa when it was introduced, there’s hardly ever a parcours that does not swimsuit her. There’s additionally ample alternative for her to select up bonus seconds on the hilly and flat phases that precede the Alpine finale.
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“The very fact is that it’ll value lots of vitality if I actually need to go for a classification in a Grand Tour. After which it is a matter of ready for a Tour or Giro that’s actually tailor-made to me. A course the place you recognize it is value taking up such a undertaking,” stated Kopecky.
“I haven’t actually found out the [2025] course but. I shortly checked out what it regarded like, however to essentially make an estimate I’ll need to run all the person rides by VeloViewer.”
Kopecky opted to overlook the Tour de France Femmes and so not defend her inexperienced jersey or podium end in 2024, preferring to prioritise the street and observe occasions on the Paris Olympics. With none targets overlapping with July, a return to the Tour may be anticipated in 2025. Whether or not or not she’ll have the ability to win it, nevertheless, is a totally completely different query.
After a near-perfect 2023 season, Kopecky had a equally unprecedented 2024 marketing campaign, including Paris-Roubaix to her illustrious palmares, alongside second triumphs at Strade Bianche and the World Championships, the place she defended her street race rainbow jersey.
“In 2022 I used to be very proud of my season. Final 12 months I assumed: ‘It actually cannot get any higher now’. Nevertheless it labored out,” stated Kopecky.
“Now I can say with certainty that it will not work out anymore, however I’d have the ability to do it subsequent 12 months another way.”
