Defending champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) had to settle for fourth in the Tour of Flanders Women on Sunday, bettered by a stronger rider and hampered by an incident for Lorena Wiebes on the Koppenberg.
Kopecky was primed for a tough challenge to defend her title and chase a record fourth victory, but in the moment the race was decided, the Belgian did not have the legs to follow the winning attack from Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) on the Oude Kwaremont.
For Kopecky, who only spoke briefly at the finish, there was a level of deference to the better rider on the day.
"She was the strongest today, and you have to be able to admit that," she said to Sporza. "Demi and her team rode the perfect race. You have to give them credit for that."
She also added that she was "basically where I needed to be" on the Kwaremont, but her teammate and final helper, Mischa Bredewold, pointed to some incidents and potential mistakes before the climb which could have been costly.
"I don't know what happened with Lorena on the Koppenberg, it was not clear for me if she had a mechanical or she just couldn't follow. I think that's an important card for us to miss in the final like this," Bredewold explained to Cyclingnews.
"But Lotte and me were feeling quite good. We quite quickly made a call to not attack and save myself so I could fix whatever would happen. I tried to put Lotte in a good position for the Kwaremont, and actually I just came short of following in that group, so I'm not sure if that was the right call, because maybe if I would have saved myself I would have been with her group and that would have made a big difference to fight for second place."
Even without that mistake, though, Bredewold was clear that any chase or fight back would have been only to reel back in Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech), not to go for the victory.
"I think Lotte felt good and I also felt good, and as I said I think I'm making a mistake before the Kwaremont with wasting energy, and if I would have been there helping pulling then we would have had one big engine extra to chase and then Lotte can perhaps be second, but the win was not in our reach today I think," she said.
SD Worx-Protime have made a habit of winning due to having many options in play, for example Kopecky's recent victory at Milan-San Remo whilst Wiebes neutralised the chase behind. Bredewold pointed to the need for numbers, but also conceded that they were beaten by a team who utilised their riders in a fairly different way.
"That's the only way to win, and we're missing one number, Lorena, in this case," Bredewold said. "But on the other hand, FDJ didn't really use their numbers in the way of attacking, they made one plan which they do quite often, but they had the numbers to put the pace really high."
Though not winning her home Monument will be a big talking point around Kopecky, she was clear pre-race that winning Milan-San Remo was already a big success ticked off for the spring, and equally on Sunday she was not concerned going into her next big goal, Paris-Roubaix.
"I don't really think I need to change anything, I think I rode a pretty strong race here," Kopecky said. "I don't need to worry about next week. That is something completely different."
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