Excelling within the Classics once more might have been the main focus for Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) within the early a part of the 2025 season however the work towards the world champion’s Tour de France Femmes aspirations is now taking centre-stage, starting at Vuelta a Burgos Feminas on Thursday.
Up till this yr, 2023 winner Demi Vollering has been the primary general card for SD Worx-Protime on the French Grand Tour however, with the Dutch now at FDJ-Suez, Kopecky is dedicating her consideration towards recapturing one other of biking’s prime prizes, the yellow jersey, for her crew. The versatile rider has already come second on the race, in 2023, and likewise clinched the runner-up spot on the Giro d’Italia Girls in 2024 to show her climbing credentials, however the assorted terrain of the four-stage Vuelta a Burgos from Could 22 to 25 will likely be her first stage-race of this season and first actual take a look at of how she is that this yr progressing towards her mid-season objective.
“I’m very desperate to race once more,” Kopecky, who final pinned on a quantity at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes almost a month in the past, stated in a crew assertion. “I completed the spring with a comparatively constructive and recent feeling. That recent feeling was as a result of I have never raced as a lot this season.
“There’s a little bit of the whole lot and that makes it enjoyable,” stated Kopecky, who final lined up on the occasion in 2022. “The primary two phases could be an opportunity to attain and the time trial ought to go well with me as effectively. Within the penultimate stage with the ultimate climb Picón Blanco I’ll primarily see how far I can get. That in itself is a primary good measure with a view to the Tour de France Femmes.”
There’s little query mark for the crew, nevertheless, on the power of their possibilities within the first two phases as not solely will Kopecky be available however additionally they have the dash velocity of Lorena Wiebes.
