With her solo attack on the Côte de Durtol, Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) won stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and took the yellow jersey. On top of that, her teammate Lorena Wiebes, the European champion, won the field sprint after being led out by Demi Vollering who was wearing the purple jersey of the Women's WorldTour leader.
At the winner's press conference, Kopecky confirmed that having the yellow jersey wouldn't change the team's plans as they target the overall win with Vollering.
"We will speak about it tonight, but it's clear that the biggest opportunity is the GC with Vollering. If I have to sacrifice this yellow jersey, then we will not hesitate to do so. Whatever needs to be done the final GC will be done, that's for sure. But of course, it would be nice to wear yellow for a few days," said Kopecky who made clear that she was still very much in the service of her teammate.
Taking the stage and the yellow jersey meant even more to Kopecky because she was under a lot of pressure ahead of the 2022 edition and did not perform as well as she hoped. However, the bad feelings from the previous year didn't haunt her in the build-up to the Tour.
"I think that something just went wrong in preparation last year. I had the worst week on the bike for me. But I did not look back to last year, I was convinced that my preparation this year had been better, that there was way less pressure this year, and that I just had to believe in the team and in myself," said Kopecky.
This self-confidence paid off, and Kopecky punched the air after crossing the finish line, visibly overjoyed with her victory.
"Sport is emotional. When you cross this finish line, there's so much pressure falling off your shoulders and so much relief. This is the Tour de France. Winning this first stage and wearing yellow tomorrow, that's special," Kopecky described her emotions.
Kopecky is also the first non-Dutch rider to wear yellow at the re-invented Tour de France Femmes and is proud to bring visibility to the race in Belgium.
"It's nice to be the first one, and I'm very proud to be Belgian and wear this yellow jersey as the big cycling nation that we are," she said.
Kopecky's attack was expertly set up by her team who put on a full lead-out into the climb. The final rider in that train was Marlen Reusser whose pace reduced the peloton to fewer than 20 riders.
"I tried to make a steady pace, I didn't go all-in. I worked for my team, and it's so nice that it paid out one and two, that's fantastic," Reusser told Cyclingnews after the stage.
Reusser was in the third chase group over the top of the climb and returned just in time to help set up Wiebes for the sprint. The Swiss champion was not surprised that Kopecky was able to stay away.
"We had the GC riders, not sprinters in the group behind. And then it's always the game that they look at each other. Lotte is not a GC rider, that's the big advantage she had there," Reusser said.
