Lotte Kopecky came through to win the final stage of the Simac Ladies Tour, despite suffering a high-speed crash in the finale of stage 5, and with it enough bonus seconds to take the lead of the race from DSM-Firmenich PostNL’s Franziska Koch.
Koch held onto second overall and Zoe Backstedt, the only Canyon-SRAM rider left in the race, finished third overall.
How it happened
- The race started with a 10.1 km time trial around Gennep won by Canyon-SRAM’s Zoe Backstedt seven seconds ahead of Visma-Lease a Bike’s Lieke Nooijen and eight seconds ahead of Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek).
- Backstedt’s defence of the overall classification took a turn when she started stage 2 in Coevorden with only one teammate and ended the stage on her own. Luckily for the British woman, SD Worx-Protime were keen for the race to end in a bunch sprint and Backstedt was able to surf the peloton and remain in the lead.
- Lorena Wiebes sprinted to stage victory ahead of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL).
- SD Worx-Protime took advantage of the weather during stage 3 to split the peloton apart, with their whole team making the front group. Visma-Lease a Bike was the team that was caught out the most in the splits and despite chasing, the race came down to a reduced sprint. Lidl-Trek threw attacks at the front group in the final 15 km but none of the attempts stuck.
- Again it was Wiebes who took the stage, with the same podium on Thursday as Wednesday.
- Backstedt rode an amazing race to remain the leader ahead after stage 4. She was hardly seen all day but managed to successfully hold onto the front group when the race split.
- Stage 4 was also impacted by weather, although the wind didn’t split the peloton like on Thursday, some rain meant a very slow start to the stage. Only 60 riders started the fourth stage after seven riders finished outside the time limit of stage 3, and two others abandoned.
- AG Insurance-Soudal, who had two riders leave the race before the stage, put three of their four remaining riders in a 14-rider move inside the final 35, but with Wiebes left in the main peloton, SD Worx-Protime were ready to chase the break down.
- Even with the Dutch team chasing behind, their teammate Femke Markus did significant work to keep the breakaway alive for Barbara Guarischi who was one of the stronger sprinters of the leading group. With AG Insurance-Soudal and Franziska Koch working as well, the breakaway survived to the line and Guarischi was able to take her first WorldTour win ahead of Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X Mobility).
- The break finished 36 seconds ahead of the peloton, which moved Koch into the lead five seconds ahead of Backstedt and eight seconds ahead of Kopecky ahead of stage 5.
- The fifth stage featured non-stop attacks, especially from Visma-Lease a Bike, but nothing would stick. Everything was set for another bunch sprint, but unfortunately, a crash with 800 meters to go impacted the final bunch.
- Lorena Wiebes was still able to win the stage, her third of the race so far, but her teammate Kopecky was one of those most impacted by the crash. The world champion still finished the stage, albeit sans some kit and with a lot of road rash. Charlotte Kool was another rider who came down in the crash and the DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider was forced to abandon the race.
- This latest win was Wiebes’s 93rd career victory.
- Koch finished 11th on the stage in the group of Wiebes and held onto her overall jersey ahead of the final hilly stage on Sunday.
- By stage 6 the peloton was down to only 58 riders, with Eva van Agt not starting on Sunday. The lack of numbers didn’t impact the action, with some interesting attacks animating the final 50 km of the race. A solo move by Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) lasted well into the final 3 km, with some riders attempting to bridge across and SD Worx-Protime trying to control proceedings.
- With less than 2 km to go Smulders still held 10 seconds on the chasing peloton. A crash impacted the chase slightly, as the peloton approached the finale.
- Smulders was caught by the sprinters just metres from the line, as Wiebes delivered Kopecky to the finish and to the ten bonus seconds needed to take the race overall for the second year in a row.
- In the end, Kopecky won the Simac Ladies Tour by only two seconds ahead of Koch and amazingly, sole representative of Canyon-SRAM Zoe Backstedt finished the race in third seven seconds behind Kopecky.
Stage-by-stage results
Stage 1: 🥇 Zoe Backstedt,🥈 Lieke Nooijen,🥉 Ellen van Dijk
Stage 2: 🥇 Lorena Wiebes,🥈 Elisa Balsamo,🥉 Charlotte Kool
Stage 3: 🥇 Lorena Wiebes, 🥈 Elisa Balsamo, 🥉 Charlotte Kool
Stage 4: 🥇 Barbara Guarischi, 🥈 Ally Wollaston, 🥉 Maria Giulia Confalonieri
Stage 5: 🥇 Lorena Wiebes, 🥈 Elisa Balsamo, 🥉 Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Stage 6: 🥇 Lotte Kopecky, 🥈 Lorena Wiebes, 🥉 Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck)
Final GC Top 10
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Additional (brief) analysis
- For some riders, like Anna Henderson and Riejanne Markus, it was the end of their time with their current team.
- For others, Sunday marked their final kilometres in the professional peloton. Before the start of the sixth stage, the riders all lined up to honour Christine Majerus, Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Alice Wood, three long-standing members of the sport who will hang up their wheels after Sunday.
- The women’s WorldTour will continue in China for the last two races of the season Tour of Chongming Island (October 15-17) and Tour of Guangxi (October 20).
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