The 2024 Tour of Flanders was removed from the day Staff SD Worx-Protime had hoped for. They began the race with World Champion Lotte Kopecky, defending champion and prime favorite, eyeing a 3rd consecutive Ronde victory – within the rainbow jersey, no much less. However in the long run, the staff completed off the rostrum with Kopecky in fifth place, Demi Vollering eighth, and Lorena Wiebes eleventh.
Just like the 12 months earlier than, the Koppenberg was the climb that influenced the race essentially the most. In 2023, Kopecky, Wiebes, and Marlen Reusser had been three out of 4 riders in a entrance group after the steep cobbled climb.
This 12 months, Kopecky and Vollering had been held up and needed to run up the cobbles, slippery from the pouring rain, leaving them to chase the entrance for the remainder of the race.
So as to add damage to insult, Reusser had crashed on the very first cobblestone part, fracturing her jaw.
“Kasia [Niewiadoma – Canyon SRAM] made a wierd motion, after which Lotte and I needed to get off our bikes. I waited for Lotte and thought that we might come again collectively. Nevertheless it simply took too lengthy and price us an excessive amount of power. It was a disgrace as a result of I believe we might have performed a very good race if we had been on the entrance,” Vollering defined in her post-race interview with Eurosport, nonetheless catching her breath after what she described as a “horrible” race.
Sadly, the incident that held up Vollering and Kopecky in addition to Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) was not proven within the broadcast because the cameras targeted on a collision between Kim Le Courtroom (AG Insurance coverage-Soudal) and Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) that occurred seconds earlier than.
At first sight, having to run on the Koppenberg was what price SD Worx-Protime a potential, and even possible, victory. Nevertheless, Vollering and Kopecky entered the climb in fifteenth and sixteenth place within the peloton after a run-in the place each weren’t well-positioned, having to make up floor from behind as a substitute of getting the choice of dropping down a number of locations in the event that they discovered themselves catching an excessive amount of wind.
“I used to be not far sufficient in entrance earlier than the Koppenberg, that was partly on account of circumstances as a result of I used to be pushed a bit, nevertheless it was additionally partly my very own fault,” Kopecky mentioned later.
2024 Tour of Flanders: Demi Vollering completes the race in eighth place (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Not being within the very first positions on the Koppenberg doesn’t robotically rule out an excellent outcome – eventual runner-up Niewiadoma was in seventeenth place at the beginning of the climb, behind Vollering and Kopecky. Nevertheless, the 29-year-old Pole swung out from behind and overtook them early on the climb when the gradient was not but as difficult, and a short time later the 2 SD Worx-Protime superstars had been left on the again foot.
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European champion Mischa Bredewold had tried her finest to pilot Vollering and Kopecky to the entrance earlier than the essential climb, however she began her effort too late, and whereas Bredewold herself was eighth going into the Koppenberg, her leaders had been that little bit additional behind.
Against this, Wiebes had been in a superb place. Delivered to the entrance by Christine Majerus effectively forward of the Koppenberg, she was in fifth place on the wheel of Marianne Vos (Staff Visma-Lease a Bike) when coming into the climb and will simply observe the tempo, cresting the climb in third place.
“Sadly, the Oude Kwaremont was only a bit an excessive amount of for me,” mentioned Wiebes.
In abstract, Staff SD Worx-Protime had dangerous luck, and Kopecky mentioned that she wasn’t feeling 100% within the race. However arguably, too, having three leaders in a squad of six – of which one crashed out – when one in all them has received the final two editions additionally was a case of “too many chiefs and too few Indians”.
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