The 27-year-old cyclist Lotte Kopecky was crowned the world road cycling champion on Sunday – the third world title won by the Belgian in just one week.
Sunday marked the final day of the first world cycling championships to bring together 13 disciplines organised by the UCI, International Cycling Union, in the Scottish city of Glasgow. What was an already successful edition for Kopecky ended with a bang when the cyclist from Antwerp won the road race, after taking two gold medals and a bronze at the World Cup on the track.
"After those two world titles on the track, I thought it would be almost impossible to win today as well. To become world champion three times in a week is too crazy for words. As a young girl, I wanted to be competitive, but I never thought I would become so good," Kopecky said following her victory.
The pre-race favourite showed her hand on the final lap of the 154.1 km course which ended with six laps of a 14.3 km circuit in Glasgow. She launched a late attack, less than 7 km from the finish line, to win from Dutchwoman and Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering and Denmark's Cecilie Ludwig.
Emotional year
Upon winning the race, Kopecky not only brought the total number of medals won by the country to eight, including four gold, but she also ended Belgium's 50-year wait for a women's road race world champion, as she became the first Belgian to win the rainbow jersey since Nicole Van den Broeck, who became world road cycling champion in Barcelona in 1973.
"Belgium is a great cycling country, but the women's team was limping behind," Kopecky said. "I am proud that we have shown that we can win even the biggest races as a team. I hope I can inspire young girls in Belgium with this world title."
She praised her teammates for helping her win the title, thanking Sanne Cant for her efforts at the beginning of the local laps. "And also Justine Ghekiere did well, I asked her to keep the speed up. Julie Van de Velde helped me back to the peloton after I had to change bikes. I'm very proud of the girls."
An emotional Kopecky after crossing the finish line. Credit: Belga / David Pintens
Kopecky's victory came at a challenging time in the cyclist's life, as she lost her brother in the spring. "It has been an incredible but also a very tough year," Kopecky said after winning the title.
"I don't know how I keep going for it. At such moments of big setbacks, you can do two things: lie at home on your sofa or keep working. I have been working very hard for years, and I have continued to do it. That has been very important, including today."
At the height of the blistering rainbow race, 869,833 Flemish viewers witnessed Kopecky's historic World Cup triumph in the road race, while French-speaking broadcaster RTBF noted that Kopecky provided a record figure for a women's World Cup road race with an average of 110,362 viewers.
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On Friday last week, Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel was crowned world time trial champion, while Wout van Aert took silver in the men's elite road race, as did Alec Segaert in the men's U23 time trial. Fleur Moors took bronze in the junior girls' road race and Julie De Wilde in the women's U23 time trial. Fabio Van den Bossche (points race) and Tuur Dens (scratch race) won bronze on the track.
In para-cycling, Belgium came 13th with eight medals, including two golds, with Maxime Hordies (cycling road race H1) and Jonas Van de Steene (cycling road race H4).
