Lotte Kopecky made a deliberate determination to delay the beginning of her season to put a agency goal on Milan-San Remo and some of the key Spring Classics earlier than turning her consideration to a GC position on the Tour de France later within the yr.
The two-time consecutive World Champion will line up as one of many stand-out favourites, even when she has not but toed the beginning line this season. She mentioned that Milan-San Remo has been her favorite race on the lads’s calendar to observe and that she’s going to likes the course design, notably the Poggio climb and descent and run-in to San Remo.
“It’s a race that I like probably the most on the lads’s [calendar] particularly the ultimate,” Kopecky mentioned in an early-season interview with choose media.
“I solely understand it from TV, however it’s a very nice climb. It won’t be as explosive as it’s within the males’s race, for us, it can take somewhat bit longer. But I feel it’s a good ultimate climb, and with the descent afterward and a flat end, it provides alternatives for lots of riders, and it’s a good race for our group.”
It has been 20 years for the reason that ladies’s subject has been provided the chance to compete in Milan-San Remo, which was previously known as La Primavera Rosa held from 1999 to 2005.
Organised by RCS Sport, the comeback of the ladies’s model of Milan-San Remo now turns into the primary of 4 Monuments provided to the ladies’s peloton, alongside the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, of which Kopecky has received two of twice at Flanders in 2022 and 2023, and Roubaix in 2024.
“I’m blissful that the race is on the calendar,” Koepcky mentioned.
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The ladies’s subject will race alongside a 156km route from Genoa to San Remo alongside the scenic shoreline earlier than tackling the long-lasting Cipressa and Poggio climbs, that are more likely to resolve how the ultimate performs out.
Kopecky’s strengths in one-day races and on climbs imply that she might be eyeing the difficult Poggio as a possible place to make her transfer. The Belgian might be backed by a robust SD Worx-Protime group that features one other potential winner in Lorena Wiebes.
Kopecky mentioned {that a} delayed begin has allowed her to recuperate from an extended season final yr, which ended with one other elite highway race world title in September and an total victory on the Simac Ladies Tour.
“There might be some modifications. I’ve taken it lots simpler in my build-up to the season. The season will look completely different than final yr. We will attempt to method it in a different way than earlier than,” noting that she spent a while at an altitude coaching camp earlier than her racing season begins.
“The plan to start out at Milan-San Remo, in order that I may have a neater build-up. The load at Simac was far more than anticipated [end of 2024]. So, I have to be a bit simpler [start to this season] due to some discomfort in my knee, so we caught to this plan to start out at Milan-San Remo.”
No matter how the race ends on Saturday in San Remo, Kopecky will then flip her consideration to among the different main Classics, however her largest objective this yr might be to lead the SD Worx-Protime to a yellow-jersey victory on the Tour de France.
Kopecky has grown as one of many prime contenders within the Grand Tours in recent times. She completed second total on the 2023 Tour de France Femmes and second total on the Giro d’Italia final yr, proving that she may climb with one of the best on the long-lasting slopes of the Col du Tourmalet and Blockhaus, respectively.
She acknowledged that modifications wanted to be made to her coaching to accommodate her targets for the French Grand Tour, this yr. Asked if her purpose to enhance on climbs meant a possible loss to her explosiveness within the dash, or one-day races equivalent to Milan-San Remo or Tour of Flanders, Kopecky didn’t have a definitive reply.
“It is determined by how we practice. I feel I’ve been capable of handle it properly; to maintain these parts balanced, between being explosive and climbing properly,” she mentioned.
“Maybe I’ll attempt to climb higher, and possibly rather less explosive however I’ll nonetheless be one of many extra explosive riders within the bunch so, I do not see any downside on this.”
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