8 conclusions from the Worlds elite women's road race 🌈

A Kopecky masterclass, OTT scapegoating of Vollering and superb cameos from Dygert, Longo Borghini and Roseman-Gannon

Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) wins the 2024 Women Elite Road Race World Championship with Chloe Dygert (USA) finishing second and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) finishing third. Photo courtesy of SWpix.

Hi Subscribers,

I wanted to open by saying that every rider who lined up on Saturday morning for the start of the elite women’s road race deserves a huge amount of respect. 

Starting one of the biggest races of the year with a minute’s silence dedicated to Muriel Furrer is such an unimaginably tough position for a rider to find themselves in. I’m not on the ground in Zurich, and just like most of you, all the information that I have on the young rider’s tragic death is from the news and reports circulating right now but the image of the Swiss team on the front of the peloton in the rain, their heads bowed, and emotions raw is one of the saddest and most heartbreaking scenes I’ve seen in cycling. I couldn’t open with anything but a message on Furrer and of course my sincere condolences going to her family, friends and teammates. 

RIP Muriel.

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Lotte Kopecky Masterclass 🇧🇪

With 20km to go it looked as though Kopecky’s defence of her world title was about to end. Two Dutch riders were already off the front and in a dangerous break, whilst Elisa Longo Borghini had just delivered a blistering attack on the main climb and had dragged Demi Vollering clear. 

Kopecky, meanwhile, was rooted to the saddle and quickly losing ground. Six killomters later the situation for the Belgian looked even worse when her remaining companion, Chloe Dygert, dropped her and made a surge to catch the front of the break.

However, resilience is a commodity Kopecky has in spades, and when the collaboration drained from the front group the Belgian was able to force her way back into contention. The Dutch still had the numerical advantage over the Belgians at that point, 3 to 2, but when Vollering put in her trademark kick with 9.9km to go the only real collateral were her two teammates. 

With one of those dropped being Marianne Vos, Kopecky hit the front on the subsequent descent, and for the first time, showed her hand in what had been a brutally tough race. Only four other riders could follow at that point and with Vos dropped and barely any climbing remaining, Kopecky became the undoubted race favourite. From a position of vulnerability and even weakness, she had battled back and demonstrated complete calmness under pressure. 

There was still work to be done, however, and what was most impressive in the finale was Kopecky holding her nerve and forcing Vollering to chase a late attack from Longo Borghini inside the final 6km. That took real guts because at that point the race was Kopecky’s to lose as she was the fastest finisher left in the race. 

Kopecky then refused to come through inside the final kilometre, even with Vollering visibly remonstrating with her, before dispatching with her Dutch rival and the rest of the opposition with a trademark power sprint. 

We’ll get to the Dutch tactics shortly but let’s take nothing away from Kopecky. It was an incredible performance based on tactical astuteness and, of course, great legs. 

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Disarray from the Dutch 🇳🇱

The Netherlands were unquestionably the strongest team in the race, on paper and out on the course. Several times on the finishing circuit they had superior numbers, succeeded in isolating their key rivals and made the race as hard as possible.