There’s a weightlessness about Lotte Kopecky as she plants herself into a wicker chair in the garden of her team hotel. Behind her, in the bay beside the Breton town of Vannes, boat masts sway gently in the wind. There’s little noise, save for the sound of water lapping against the hulls, and the faint joy of families playing on the small beach next door.
It’s a serene atmosphere, and with just two sleeps until the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, where Kopecky was expected to mount a GC bid, the world champion is calm, too. The pressure, she says, is off. The idea of winning the yellow jersey has been relinquished, at least for this year. And she is at peace with it.
