We all grieve in our own way. For Lotte Kopecky, who tragically and suddenly lost her older brother Seppe, 29, not even a week ago, today’s edition of the Nokere Koerse in Belgium seemed to be a release valve for her pain.
The 27-year-old Kopecky broke free with just over 6K to go and left the rest of the field in the rearview, as she rode to yet another victory on the young 2023 season.
Kopecky wasn’t on the original start list today. Her team, SD Worx, was set to work for last year’s winner, Lorena Wiebes, who has won this race for the last two years.
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But plans changed. Yesterday SD Worx released a statement announcing that Kopecky would be racing and asked the media and the public to respect her space and, essentially, to leave her alone. The message was clear and firm: just let her race.
The team didn’t address any questions about whether the team would be riding for Kopecky instead of Wiebes, refusing to feed in to any speculation of drama. It seemed clear that SD Worx was coming together as a team in support of one of their own.
Aggressive and fast racing
Kopecky started attacking straight away, pushing the tempo on the 42K average speed. About 30 riders were dropped on the first climb. There was virtually no wind in the Flemish countryside this morning and race leaders continued to drill it accordingly.
On a cobbled climb with about 11K to the finish, Kopecky and Wiebes could be seen having a quick discussion, and moments later Kopecky attacked on the climb. Moments later still, she overtook the race leader Aude Biannic (Team Moviestar). Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini (UAE) appeared to be hanging on to Kopecky’s wheel for dear life.
A win but not a celebration
At about 6K out, Kopecky attacked for the win. No one could follow, and she was solo all the way to the line. Instead of celebrating as she won the race, a clearly emotional Kopecky hung her head.
No one watching could help but feel for her and her loss. We echo the sentiment of one of the race commentators, who said, “I have no words for this.”
It was another 1-2 finish for SD Worx, as Wiebes won a bunch sprint to grab second
After the race, Kopecky said that not a lot went through her head during the race. “These were not easy days,” she told GCN, through an interpreter after the race. “It’s no use to let your head hang and today I just wanted to race and I’m happy that it worked out. Today I think I raced with two.”
It was the fourth edition of Nokere Koerse for women
In a reminder of how recent the strides women’s cycling has made are, this was only the fourth edition of the women’s Nokere Koerse. While the first edition of the men’s race took place in 1944, women didn’t get their race until 2019. That inaugural edition was won by Amy Pieters.
However, race organizers did debut the women’s race with equal prize money right out of the gate, which makes them trailblazers, even as late as 2019.
Perhaps that’s why Nokere Koerse has risen to occupy such an important place on the spring calendar for women’s racing in such a short time.
Natascha Grief got her first bike shop job before she was old enough to drink. After a six-year stint as a mechanic, earning a couple pro-mechanic certifications and her USA Cycling Race Mechanics license, she became obsessed with framebuilding and decided she wanted to do that next. After Albert Eistentraut literally shooed her off his doorstep, admonishing that if she pursued framebuilding she will be poor forever, she landed an apprenticeship with framebuilder Brent Steelman in her hometown of Redwood City, CA. After that, she spent several years working for both large and not-so-large cycling brands. Somewhere in there she also became a certified bike fitter. Natascha then became a certified personal trainer and spent nine years honing her skills as a trainer and coach, while also teaching Spin. During the dumpster fire that was the year 2020, she opened a fitness studio and began contributing regularly to Runner’s World and Bicycling as a freelance writer. In 2022, she joined the staff of Bicycling as News Editor.
