Lotte Kopecky Wins the 2023 Women’s World Championship Road Race

Lotte Kopecky of Belgium pulled on her third rainbow jersey in this year’s UCI World Championship after winning the elite women’s road race in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday. It was the first time in 50 years that a Belgian rider has won the World Championship road race.

Demi Vollering of Netherlands finished second, and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig of Denmark rounded out the podium to claim bronze.

What happened

Slick roads greeted over 200 riders at the start line of the 154-kilometer course, which had been touted as one of the hardest one-day races on the pro women’s calendar this year. The race delivered on that promise, with the pace reaching a punishing level from almost the very beginning. Riders kicked things off at the front with aggressive accelerations and attacks, stringing out the group and ejecting riders out the back as soon as the legs were warmed up.

The first breakaway took off, led by Lizzie Deignan of Great Britain, along with six other top riders in the world, at the 134km mark and, surprisingly, the peloton didn’t react to bring them back. Before long, this lead group opened an approximately 30 second gap and stayed away for over 22km before it was reabsorbed.

The next major attack was launched by Teniel Campbell of Trinidad and Tobego at the 110km mark but this time the peloton didn’t let a significant gap happen. The Belgian team kept things under control at the front while their team favorite, Lotte Kopecky, was catching up to the race after needing a bike change.

The splintered peloton managed to come back together after a massive chase effort before the second act of the race, the six-lap circuit around Glasgow that American rider Coryn Labecki described a few days ago as “a criterium on steroids.” The favorites began jockeying for an advantageous position, fighting to hit the start of the circuit at the front, because that’s the only safe place to be.

The crashes literally began immediately with riders touching wheels during the first corner of the approximately 50 (!!) corners per lap of the severely technical circuit. The battle didn’t let up for the remaining 90-plus kilometers, with every lap raced as though it were the bell lap with riders giving it full gas up the 10.8 percent average gradient of the Montrose Street climb they faced each lap. The climb is 14.5 percent at its steepest.

Of the over 200 riders who started the race, only 32 remained in the peloton by lap three. This course forgave nothing.

Reigning world champion Annemiek van Vleuten’s (Netherlands) race didn’t go the way she wanted it to at the midway point, with a puncture at 65km to go, followed by a full bike change in a separate incident shortly thereafter. However, after her superhuman performance during the 2022 World Championships, we know that van Vleuten is a rider who can deliver miracles.

At the same time AVV was drag racing back to the group, ultimately closing a 60-second gap, race favorite Kopecky decided it was the time to make her move. She launched an attack to reel in Elise Chabbey of Switzerland who had been dangling out front, time trialing the race by herself. A few riders were able to jump on Kopecky’s wheel and opened a significant gap almost immediately. However it was clear that no one in this group had any intention of working for Kopecky and that it was every rider for themselves.

Chabbey ultimately opened a solo gap of almost a minute and a half by the time three laps remained between her and the finish line. It was at this time that the remaining riders from the Netherlands finally began to make themselves known. With four riders left, the team began to move Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering of the Netherlands into position at the front of the group while chipping away at Chabbey’s lead, sending van Vleuten out the front to launch an attack.

The two Dutch riders who were rivals just weeks ago during the Tour de France Femmes were riding together for the same team and the same goal today.

At 35km to go, Kopecky launched her first big move. The Belgian rider was immediately marked by Vollering, who was able to hang on to the wheel, revealing what her job of the day is on her team.

But it was van Vleuten who was having none of it and launched an attack to hunt down Chabbey, keeping the pressure on the remaining riders, including Chabbey’s last remaining Swiss teammate Marlen Reusser, ridiculously high.

Chabbey’s lead remained substantial but was whittled down by AVV’s attack to about a half a minute as the race entered the second to last lap. With about 18 KM to go, Lotte launched the definitive attack that finally pulled her back into the group’s sight, only ten or so seconds up the road. Chabbey’s teammate Reusser, who had been tucked in this chasing group, began to quietly ready herself.

On the penultimate climb, trade teammates Kopecky and Vollering both attacked to get control of the front of the race, working together to finally reabsorb Chabbey. But the move put AVV in trouble off the back of the chase group before yet another mechanical problem brought her to a standstill right before the bell lap. Van Vleuten needed another bike change.

Just over the top of the last climb of the bell lap, Lizzie Deignan, who launched the first major attack of the day, made what was ultimately the winning attack of the day, demonstrating once again at how brilliantly she can read a race. Reusser, Kopecky and Austrian Christina Schweinberger were the only riders who were able to hang on.

Until the last climb and the missile-like attack of Demi Vollering, which was the first of the attack-counterattack cycle of Danish rider Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Lotte Kopecky.

The Belgian bullet unleashed her final blow at 5.6km to the line, blowing past Vollering, and the group behind began the race for second place. Ultimately no other rider came close to catching Kopecky, who won a historic victory for Belgium. She became the first Belgian woman to win the rainbow jersey in the road race since Nicole Vandenbroeck in 1973.

A tearful Kopecky said after the race, “It’s really a dream that’s come true. I look forward to wearing the rainbow jersey next year.”

UCI World Championships Women’s Road Race Results - Top 10

1. Lotte Kopecky (Belgium): 4:02:12

2. Demi Vollering (Netherlands): +:07

3. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Denmark): +:07

4. Marlen Reusser (Switzerland): +:12

5. Christina Schweinberger (Austria): +:34

6. Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain): +:34

7. Elise Chabbey (Switzerland): +1:24

8. Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands): +2:48

9. Riejanne Markus (Netherlands): +3:51

10. Mavi Garcia (Spain): +4:05

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