Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) is just 27 however has been within the elite peloton since her first yr out of the junior ranks and has risen together with ladies’s skilled biking amid drastic enhancements over the previous decade. Talking forward of the opening Spring Traditional, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kopecky spoke in favour of the UCI-imposed minimal salaries for girls.
“They have to be [in place] as a result of in any other case, ladies’s biking won’t develop,” Kopecky mentioned, including that riders want to have the ability to stay from professional biking and never must work on the similar time, “as a result of then there’ll all the time be this massive hole.”
Kopecky was defending the wage guidelines solely as a result of Patrick Lefevere, who owns the AG Insurance coverage-Soudal-Quickstep elite and growth groups and males’s WorldTeam, final week criticized the minimal salaries saying “ladies’s biking is simply not broad sufficient to justify” a minimal wage of €60,000.
[The current minimum for Women’s WorldTeams is €26,849 for employed neo-pros, €32,102 for experienced riders, and more for self-employed riders who don’t earn the same benefits. Only self-employed experienced riders will have a minimum salary that exceeds €60,000 but not until 2025. – ed]
Nonetheless, Lefevere’s personal rider, Belgian Justine Ghekiere, made him eat these phrases when she escaped on the ultimate day to win the general Setmana Valenciana final weekend. When requested concerning the consequence, Kopecky joked, “I feel it was a pleasant center finger from them.”
Kopecky mentioned she felt the event of girls’s biking was continuing on the proper pace and never advancing too shortly.
“I feel we’re simply transferring on the proper pace,” she mentioned. “Yearly there are little changes. The evolution we noticed within the final years may be very good, we additionally see very good races and lots of spectacle.”
A kind of spectacles was Kopecky successful the Tour of Flanders whereas sporting the Belgian champion’s jersey in entrance of an enormous crowd and tv viewers. This yr, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad joins the Ladies’s WorldTour after being on the Professional Sequence in 2021 and 2022, and a 1.1-ranked race since 2016. It can additionally end after the lads’s, guaranteeing the viewers stick round for his or her races. The shift, a choice by organisers Flanders Classics, vastly improved the scores for the ladies’s races.
With the modified course giving the ladies an opportunity to compete over the previous Tour of Flanders finale that features the Muur van Geraardsbergen and Bosberg climbs, Kopecky says Omloop is worthy of the WorldTour.
“It is a very good race that fits the WorldTour. I feel it is a good factor however whether it is WorldTour or not, it is nonetheless a really good race.”
There’s additionally equal prize cash for the highest finishers this yr, one other “very good gesture” from Flanders Classics, she says.
“It isn’t a very powerful factor, however … though we do much less kilometres, I feel we nonetheless must work for it as onerous as the lads. I feel it is a very good factor that this prize cash is identical.”
Season debut for many of SD Worx Omloop het Nieuwsblad workforce
SD Worx had been the highest workforce in 2022 within the UCI rankings and WorldTour, with Kopecky incomes essentially the most factors because of her wins within the Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche, podiums at Worlds, Paris-Roubaix, and Ronde van Drenthe. Teammate Demi Vollering was the following finest, touchdown on the rostrum in all three Ardennes Classics and coming second general within the Tour de France Femmes.
They’ve recruited sprinter Lorena Wiebes this yr – she received a stage within the UAE Tour this month. In any other case, Omloop het Nieuwsblad would be the first race of the season for the opposite riders. They could not have the race kilometres, however Kopecky is aware of from a current workforce camp the workforce is prepared.
“I noticed all people on the final camp, and we will be assured that it is not too dangerous for us that it is our first race. We had lots of race simulations within the coaching camp. So I feel that won’t be an issue.”
Kopecky has already been racing however on the monitor, the place she received the Elimination Race, so she has loads of pace in her legs. “I feel I really feel fairly good for the time being. We now have an excellent robust workforce initially. So now we have lots of choices that we will play tomorrow. I hope I can have the great feeling in my legs and that with the workforce, we will win the race.”
Since 2019, Omloop het Nieuwsblad has been received from both solo assaults or, final yr, the all the time dominant present world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) out-sprinting Vollering from a two-rider breakaway.
I feel tomorrow, we could have a really robust Annemiek once more.
Lotte Kopecky
Final yr, Kopecky missed the transfer on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, and needed to bridge throughout to Van Vleuten and Vollering, solely to get dispatched on the Bosberg. She says she realized a invaluable lesson final yr from that second.
A stiff headwind that’s anticipated tomorrow may change the dynamic of the finale. “That is not likely in favour for smaller teams to remain away. I hope that we will have a tough race and that there’s a very onerous determination on the climbs,” she mentioned.
Whereas Kopecky could have the #1 dossard for her workforce, she mentioned if the race comes all the way down to a dash, then the logical selection is for her to guide out Lorena Wiebes.
“Lorena is among the quickest women within the bunch. And she or he’s sooner than me. O course, now we have to see how she’s feeling, however I feel 9 out of ten we’ll try to lead her out.”
There’s nonetheless an excellent likelihood that Van Vleuten may go on one in every of her solo rampages. She did not present excellent kind in Valencia final week however Kopecky isn’t underestimating her.
“She simply got here from Colombia from altitude. We should not underestimate that. And now we’re every week later, she had some competitors. So I feel she will likely be significantly better than she was final week. With Annemiek you by no means know. I feel tomorrow, we could have a really robust Annemiek once more.”
