Simply two days after her triumphant victory at Tour of Flanders in Belgium, Lotte Koepcky was again within the saddle previewing the unruly pavé sectors forward of Paris-Roubaix, France, on Saturday.
The World Champion is not any stranger to those rougher cobbles over the border, having competed in all 4 earlier editions, and she or he received the Monument final yr, however this marks a particular season the place she has the possibility to win the Flanders and Roubaix inside the identical season.
“We pushed arduous on the cobblestones, however as a result of the Tour of Flanders continues to be recent in our legs, we took it simple on the intermediate sections,” SD Worx-Protime supervisor instructed HLN.
This version will happen on the identical 148.5-kilometre Paris-Roubaix Femmes route that was used final yr, which incorporates 29.2km of cobbles and the identical ultimate 17 sectors of the boys’s race, excluding the Trouée d’Arenberg. 5-star sectors at Mons-en-Pévèle with 49km to go and the Carrefour de l’Arbre with 17km to go stay the largest challenges for the ladies alongside the route from Denain to the Roubaix Velodrome.
Kopecky is one of many key favourites for this version of Paris-Roubaix, and she or he was joined by her teammates Lorena Wiebes, Elena Cecchini, Blanka Vas and Barbara Guarischi, the place they previewed the Mons-en-Pévèle, Camphin-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l’Arbre earlier than returning to the velodrome in Roubaix.
Whereas rain is perhaps within the forecast for the boys’s race on Sunday, Stam mentioned he expects a dry version of the ladies’s race on Saturday, though he anticipates wind to trigger splits among the many discipline.
“The fifth version can be fully completely different from the earlier years, however that doesn’t make it any much less harmful. There may be a variety of mud within the bends of the cobblestone sections, and the sting between the cobblestones and the grass is commonly simple to experience on, which suggests there’s a huge likelihood of falls if somebody desires to leap off the sting again onto the cobblestones,” Stam mentioned.
“Based on the climate forecast, the wind will flip a bit throughout the weekend and on Saturday, it’s going to blow extra within the aspect and even barely within the benefit, which additionally means there’s a likelihood of echelons.”
Kopecky has had a truncated block of spring racing in comparison with earlier seasons, solely simply beginning at Milan-San Remo and aiming to pick a number of goal one-day races earlier than turning her consideration to the Tour de France later this summer time.
After her dominant show on the Tour of Flanders final weekend, we are able to anticipate that that is Kopecky’s chosen week for peak efficiency as she goals to win each races in a single season.
Following the Paris-Roubaix recon on Tuesday, Kopecky returned dwelling and can rejoin her teammates forward of the race on Saturday.
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