Lotte Kopecky: "I had some difficulties"
“First of all, I want to bring my condolences to the family of Muriel [Furrer],” says our winner in an interview with Eurosport. “The minute of silence at the start, seeing the Swiss riders crying is just something you don’t want to see and I think it’s a very hard moment for them as well.”
On it being a good win mentally as well as physically: “Yeah for sure, certainly my head,” she says. “It was a really annoying day because it was raining, it was cold but on the climbs it was warm, then on the downhills you got so cold. Three laps from the end I was actually freezing but I tried to stay as [mentally] cool as possible. I had some difficulties when Demi went on the final climb but I just tried to stay at my own pace and come back.
“At the end it was just a lot of mind games so I was just trying to stay as cool as possible and use my energy at the right moments.”
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Kopecky’s winning time: 4hr 05min 26sec.
That sprint: Longo Borghini was first to make her move on the straight run to the finish but Lotte Kopecky was keeping a good eye on her and eased past to win comfortably from Dygert by about two bike-lengths.
Longo-Borghini took bronze in a lunge to the line ahead of Liane Lippert, while Demi Vollering and Ruby Roseman-Gannon finished fifth and sixth without mounting any sort of challenge for a podium places in the closing stages. They were clearly exhausted.
Women's elite road race podium ...
Gold: Lotte Kopecky (Belgium)
Silver: Cloe Dygert (USA)
Bronze: Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)
Lotte Kopecky retains her rainbow jersey!!!
The Belgian comes out on top in a six-woman sprint to win the women’s elite road race at these World Championships and majke it back-to-back victories.
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1km to go: Roseman-Gannon and Dygert are back in touch and we have six riders fighting it out for three medals.
2km to go: Roseman-Gannon and Dygert are trying to ride themselves back into contention and if the lead quartet start messing about playing cat-and-mouse in the closing stages, there’s every chance they could do exactly that. A Roseman-Gannon swoop from nowhere, anyone?
3km to go: Vollering catches Longo Borghini, with Lippert and Kopecky on her wheel. We’re into the final three kilometres of the race and the rest of the course is pancake flat.
5km to go: Elisa Longo Borghini opens a gap of about 50 metres over Vollering, Lippert and Kopecky. Lippert is struggling to stay on Kopecky’s wheel.
7km to go: Heading back into Zurich on a fast descent, Lotte Kopecky, leads a front group of five riders, with Chloe Dygert a few seconds behind. Contrary to what I said in a previous post, I can confirm Roseman-Gannon is in the lead group but struggling to stay in touch.
10km to go: The road kicks upwards briefly and Demi Vollering attacks but she’s unable to get rid of anyone apart from her two teammates, Vos and Markus, as well Ghekiere, the Belgian. The lead group is down to five riders, with Roseman-Gannon also out of the picture.
11km to go: Barring something extremely unexpected, this race will be won by one of nine riders. They are: Vos, Markus and Vollering (Netherlands), Kopecky and Ghekiere (Belgium), Lippert (Germany), Roseman-Gannon (Australia), Dygert (USA) and Longo-Borghini (Italy).
14km to go: In the lead quintet, Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Australia) is pointedly refusing to put in a shift at the front. Any time she’s asked, she just shakes her head. They’re about to be joined by Chloe Dygert (USA), while Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) is also back in touch. Vos, Kopecky and Gannon are the fastest finishers.
17km to go: Your lead group: Ghekiere (Belgium), Vollering and Voss (Netherlands), Longo Borghini (Italy), Roseman-Gannon (Australia). Vollering is working hard at the front to try to put more distance between themselves and the chasing Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Chloe Dygert (USA) can’t catch them.
18km to go: I had a feeling that clock was wrong and it seems I was right. Using the evidence of my own eyes, I can reveal that Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini and Liane Lippert have caught the lead quartet. They have a slender lead over Lotte Kopecky and Chole Dygart, who can be seen in the background playing catch-up as they negotiate the last bit of the climb.
20km to go: The two Dutch riders are doing all the work at the front of the race, while Australia’s Ruby Roseman-Gannon is sitting at the back of the quartet on the wheel of Justine Ghekiere (Belgium), hitching a free ride.
Germany’s Liane Lippert is working hard at the front of the chase group, which contains Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Chloe Dygert (USA), Demi Vollering (Netherlands) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy).
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22km to go: This race is being staged in Switzerland but the timekeeping seems to be uncharacterisitcally all over the place and definitely not living up to lazy traditional stereotypes. We’re now being told the four leaders have a lead of a minute over the chasing bunch.
24km to go: Our lead quartet is Marianne Vos (Netherlands), Riejanne Markus (Netherlands), Justine Ghekiere (Belgium) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Australia) and they’re currently tackling an 18% gradient climb. Vos and Gannon are the two fastest sprinters in this front four but they’ve lost almost 20 seconds on this climb. They’re over the steepest part of it now.
26km to go: Our lead quartet take the bell for the final circuit with a lead of a minute over the peloton containing the main contenders. First past the post on this occasion, Belgium’s Justine Ghekiere tries and fails to remove something to eat from the pocket of her jersey. It looks like her hands are too cold for her to get a grip on anything. She removes and discards her wet gloves and gives the hands in question a good shake to try to get the blood coursing.
31km to go: My humble apologies – the Australian who was on Vos’s wheel is Ruby Roseman-Gannon, not Neve Bradbury, who is back in the peloton. They join Justine Ghekiere and Riejanne Markus at the head of the race and the gap is 20 seconds. A penny for the thoughts of Riejanne Markus as she saw her compatriot Vos ride upsides her. I think she’d rather the world’s greatest sprinter had stayed away. As things stand, this race is set up for a terrific finish that is impossible to predict.
33km to go: The gap is approximately 12 seconds as Marianne Vos tries to bridge it, with Australia’s Neve Bradbury on her wheel.
35km to go: Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) and Justine Ghekiere (Belgium) have a lead of 18 seconds over the other contenders as they begin the latest descent. The road is drenched with rain and both riders are generating plenty of spray with their back wheels.
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40km to go: Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) and Justine Ghekiere (Belgium) attack the lead group and open a gap of 50 seconds. Behind them, Marianne Vos (Netherlands) and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland) have both rejoined the group. Indeed, Vos has not only rejoined it, but pedalled onwards in pursuit of the two leaders. With no race radio, she may not know her teammate Riejanne Markus is ahead of her up the road.
43km to go: Juliette Labous attacks off the front of a lead group that is now comprised of about 15 riders. Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Chloe Dygart (USA), Demi Vollering (Netherlands), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Neve Bradbury (Australia), Noemi Ruegg (Switzerland), Justine Ghekiere (Belgium), Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) and Minke Anderson (Denmark) are all in the lead group.
46km to go: Demi Vollering (Netherlands) takes it up at the front with Eva Longho Borghini (Italy) on her wheel. Juliette Labous (France) is next, then Liane Lippert (Germany), followed by Lotte Kopecky (Belgium)
48km to go: Pauliena Rooijakkers gets out of the saddle, stands on her pedals and beats out a ferocious rhythm as she leads the field up the latest climb. Marianne Vos is struggling to keep up, with her Dutch teammate clearly piling on the pain in a bid to shell as many contenders as possible to make life as easy as possible for Demi Vollering.
52km to go: Our lead group is now comprised of about 40 riders, six of them representing the Netherlands, including Demi Vollering and Marianne Vos. Lotte Kopecky has her Belgian compatriot Justine Ghekiere in the bunch for company, while Kristen Faulkner (USA), Chloe Dygart (USA), Anna Henderson (Great Britain), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Urska Zygart (Slovenia), Cecile Ludwig (Denmark), Grace Brown (Australia), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland) are among the big names in the mix.
55km to go: Lotte Kopecky drops back to her team car to pick up a bidon and get some running repairs done on her jersey with what looks like a pair of scissors. Your guess is as good as mine. She’s wearing long sleeves and one of a minority of riders in the field wearing leg warmers. Not the woolly 1980s type that only cover your shins and calves, I hasten to add, but skintight black ones that stretch from hip to ankle.
56km to go: A three-times elite women’s world road race champion (2006, 2012 and 2013), Vos is one of four former champions competing today. Belgium’s Lottie Kopecky (2023), Italy’s Elisa Balsamo (2021) and France’s Pauline Ferreand-Prevot (2014) are the others.
59km to go: The lead group fractures into two on the descent but the two sets of riders merge into one again as the course levels out. Marianne Vos in one of four or five Dutch riders near the front. Unlike her teammate Demi Vollering, she will be wholeheartedly in favour of a sprint finish because she’d almost certainly win it.
60km to go: Mischa Bredewold (Netherlands) puts the hammer down as she leads what’s left of the field down a six-kilometre descent in extremely treacherous conditions.
63km to go: The defending champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) is comfortably ensconced in the lead group but looks fairly isolated. I don’t think any of her teammates are alongside her or even in the group. It’s very difficult to be certain as a lot of riders have their jerseys covered by rain jackets.
69km to go: Having decimated the peloton and got several riders into the lead bunch, the Netherlands are making the pace courtesy of Mischa Bredewold. Elinor Barker (Breat Britain) and Kristen Faulkner (USA) are in a group of about eight riders who are over a minute behind.
68km to go: A very select group of about 35 riders, if that, led by the Dutch and with strong Australian representation, currently lead the race. British riders Anna Henderson and Alice Towers are both in the lead bunch. Another group of 65 riders are over three minutes behind.
73km to go: Our lead group is currently comprised of about 25 riders, with another group a few seconds behind. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Netherlands) is making the pace at the front of the bunch. They pass through a feed zone and several riders drop bidons as they try to grab them from the roadside soigneurs. A sign of very cold fingers combined with very wet bottles, one presumes.
Mischa Bredewold (Netherlands) is one of those who has to go without a drink and she slams her handlebars in irritation. If she opens her mouth and looks towards the heavens, she can slake her thirst on the deluge of rain which continues to fall from the sky.
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73km to go: The breakaway is caught.
74km to go: The Dutch have strength in numbers here, with two riders in the breakaway and two others at the front of the chasing bunch, who are about to catch them. Vollering, the strongest of them, will not want this race to end in a sprint finish.
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75km to go: The gap is at 30 seconds and as the peloton tackles the latest climb, Pauliena Rooijakkers is making the pace at the front with her teammate Demi Vollering on first wheel.
78km to go: With three laps of racing remaining, our lead group of 11 riders have a lead of 12 seconds over the bunch. I can finally reveal that Urska Zigart (Slovenia) and Mie Ottestad (Norway) are also in the breakaway.
An accomplished cyclist who was controversially left out of Slovenia’s team for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Zigart is the compatriot and girlfriend of a young up-and-coming men’s cyclist named Tadej Pogacar, who is the favourite to win tomorrow’s men’s elite road race.
81km to go: Bredewold tries to organise her fellow breakaway riders into some sort of cohesive team effort but they don’t seem particularly interested and a quick look over her shoulder reveals the peloton to be no more than 100 metres behind them. One suspects she would have better luck trying to mind mice at a crossroads.
83km to go: Dutch rider Mischa Bredewold bridges the gap between the peloton and the breakaway, joining her compatriot Riejanne Markus in the escape party.
86km to go: The conditions in Switzerland are getting increasingly filthy as our 10-woman breakaway increase their lead to 19 seconds. You could say the elastic band has been stretched to within an inch of its life but has yet to snap.
The breakaway: Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand), Riejanne Markus (Netherlands), Justine Ghekiere (Belgium), Soraya Paladin (Italy), Sarah Gigante (Australia), Christine Majerus (Luxembourg), Franziska Koch (Germany) and three other as yet unidentified riders.
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91km to go: There are nine riders in the breakaway with the gap at 14seconds. German rider Antonia Niedermaier is trying to bridge it. At the back of the field, a group of approximately 20 riders, including Great Britain’s Claire Steels, are already over two minutes behind the leaders.
94km to go: With top time-triallist Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) taking charge and calling the shots, the breakaway increases the gap between themselves and the bunch. Either through accident or design, quite a few faniced countries, including the USA, have failed to get a rider into the escape party. Belgium, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia are all represented.
96km to go: The gap between a breakaway that is eight riders strong and a really strung-out peloton is about eight seconds.
97km to go: Accompanied by Riejanne Markus (Netherlands), Justine Gherkiere (Belgium) and four other riders who I have yet to identify, Fisher-Black opens a very slender gap over the rest of the bunch.
100km to go: Our three-woman breakaway is no more and the peloton is intact once again, with Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and assorted other big hitters positioned near the front, all the better to stay out of trouble. But what’s this? New Zealand’s Niamh (pronounced Neeve) Fisher-Black launches an attack and is followed by six other riders as the riders approach an early feed zone
105km to go: Chapeau to the good people of Zurich, who have not let the atrocious weather conditions deter them from lining the streets to cheer on the riders.
Near the front of the field but going backwards, home favourite Caroline Baur is getting plenty of encouragement as she struggles to stay in the breakaway on an extremely steep climb. It’s Luxembourg’s Nina Berton who is applying the pressure. Baur gets swallowed up by the peloton as Berton, wearing a red helmet and blue kit, takes the outright lead of this women’s elite road race.
107km to go: With a quarter of the race completed, our lead trio pass the finish line for the first time and are followed by the main bunch, just 27 seconds behind them.
112km to go: The final two-and-a-half kilometres of today’s race, which ends in Zurich’s Sechselautenplatz, are pancake flat, so it would obviously be in the best interests of any non-sprinters in the field to make their move before the race reaches that stage. The riders are currently approaching it for the first of four times today.
114km to go: Jelena Eric (Serbia) attacks off the front of the bunch on the descent, skilfully avoiding three potentially dangerous manhole covers located in close proximity to each other as she negotiates a tight turn.
118km to go: The peloton tackles a nasty, steep ramp ahead of a three-kilometre descent and reigning champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) kicks off the front of the bunch. On Eurosport, the course is described as being “peppered with short, sharp little climbs”, which will provide lots of opportunities for attacks later in the race. The gap is 34 seconds.
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121km to go: At the front of the peloton, Danish rider Emma Norsgaard removes her rain jacket, crumples it up in a ball and gently tosses it towards a bedraggled looking spectator standing roadside. I’d say he’s put it on already!
124km to go: It’s more or less as you were, with our lead trio of Caroline Baur (Switzerland), Sara Martin (Spain) and Nina Berton (Luxembourg) leading the chasers by 43 seconds with a big descent in perilous conditions ahead of them. Quite a few riders are struggling at the back of the bunch on this early climb and have been dropped.
127km to go: Our leading trio are on the first noteworthy climb of the day, which has a maximum gradient of 18.9%. The rain continues to pour down making the road, which is littered with fallen leaves from nearby trees, seriously greasy.
128km to go: There’s a crash at the back of the peloton and Rwanda’s Jazilla Mwamikazi and Germany’s Hannah Ludwig are among the riders to go down. Ludwig needs a new bike, while Mwamikazi looks to be in pain and is also waving frantically for mechanical assistance.
130km to go: Tiffany Keep (South Africa) is struggling to put much of a dent into the following bunch as she attempts to catch our leading trio. The gap is 1min 42sec.
134km to go: South African rider Tiffany Keep has jumped off the front of the peloton and is trying to bridge across to the breakaway. The gap is 1min 21sec as the riders meander towards the first climb of note.
138km to go: Our lead trio of Caroline Baur (Switzerland), Sara Martin (Spain) and Nina Berton (Luxembourg) extend the gap to 1min 12sec. It’s still pouring rain but a lot of the riders have removed their rain jackets having been out on the road for long enough to warm up.
142km to go: Defending champion Lotte Kopecky is fourth from the front of the main bunch, staying out of any potential trouble by holding a prominent position.
144km to go: The gap between our leading trio and the rest of the field is down to 38 seconds as the peloton negotiates a tight right turn including several bits of street furniture.
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149km to go: We have a three-woman breakaway who have opened a gap of a minute on the peloton. They are Caroline Baur (Switzerland), Sara Martin (Spain) and Nina Berton (Luxembourg).
At the back of the field, Afghanistan rider Yulduz Hashimi has hit the deck. The filthiness of the conditions today cannot be overstated. The weather is awful. It’s also worth noting that the competitors in today’s race are not using radios and can’t be fed information from their team cars about what’s going on in front of, or behind them.
The roll-out begins: With rain tipping down on a bitterly cold day in Uster, the flag drops and the riders begin their roll-out. Most are wearing rain jackets with long sleeves as they attempt to manage the adverse conditions. Here’s hoping they all come back safe and sound.
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A minute’s silence: Ahead of today’s roll-out, the riders, race officials and spectators gathered at the start have just observed a minute’s silence in memory of Muriel Furrer, the young Swiss cyclist who died yesterday. These world championships are going ahead with the blessing of the 18-year-old’s family.
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Brit-watch: There are six British riders starting today’s race, led by Olympic silver medal-winning time-triallist Anna Henderson. The 25-year-old from Hemel Hempstead will be supported by Elinor Barker, Elizabeth Holden, Josie Nelson, Claire Steels and Alice Towers.
Great Britain has sent a 55-strong team of cyclists to this year’s road and para-road events which have been taking place all week and culminate with the women’s and men’s road races today and tomorrow.
Team GB have won 13 medals so far across various categories, with Sarah Storey, Cat Ferguson, Felix Barrow and Fran Brown taking gold. Elinor Barker and Tom Pidcock will be hoping to join them on the top step of the podium over the next couple of days.
Remembering the late Muriel Furrer
The world championships were touched by tragedy yesterday when the 18-year-old Swiss cyclist died after sustaining a head injury in a heavy fall during the women’s junior road race on Thursday.
This year’s championships will carry on, “respecting the wishes of [Furrer’s] family to continue”, said Peter Van Den Abeele, the UCI’s sports director.
The UCI and race organisers faced questions about the accident, after local news outlets alleged Furrer was not found immediately after her crash. Olivier Senn, the Zurich 2024 deputy director, said: “There is an investigation going on by the police and public prosecutor. We have no secured information for the time being, and we can’t comment on this.”
Furrer reportedly crashed in a wooded area near Küsnacht on the 73.6km route between Uster and Zurich, but Senn added there was “not yet” official confirmation of the accident location. Van Den Abeele added that the use of GPS trackers in the race would also be looked into by the relevant authorities.
The elite men’s and women’s races this weekend will take in the stretch of road where the fatal crash is thought to have occurred. Senn revealed that extra safety checks had been carried out on downhill stretches of the course, with wet weather forecast.
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Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering: The two favourites for today’s race are representing different countries today, but are usually fiercely competitive teammates with SD Worx–Protime.
They have 28 wins between them this season, most recently finishing first (Kopecky) and second (Vollering) in the Tour de Romandie Feminien, a three-stage race which the Belgian won by six seconds.
Women's road race: Uster to Zurich (154km)
The Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky is in Switzerland to defend the women’s road race world title she won in Scotland last year and heads a wide-open field sardine-packed full of riders with genuine chances of taking the 28-year-old’s crown over a 154km up-and-down, zig-zagging course that boasts a combined 2,384m worth of punchy climbs.
Demi Vollering (Netherlands), who finished second behind Kopecky in last year’s race will be hoping to go one place better, while the Olympic gold medallist Kristen Faulkner (USA), Tour de France Femmes winner Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland), Giro D’Italia Women winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) and Olympic time-tieal champion Grace Brown (Australia) will all fancy their chances.
A wily campaigner and three-times champion who is showing little or no sign of slowing down, Marianne Vos (Netherlands) cannot be ruled out either. It’s very cold and quite wet in Uster, where the race is due to set off at 11.45am (BST) .
