Lotte Kopecky wins the 2026 edition of Milan-San Remo. 📸 LaPresse.
Hey Subscribers,
Before we dive into Lukas’ excellent conclusions from the women’s edition of Milan-San Remo, there’s just a quick update from me on what’s coming up this week.
With the cobbled Classics coming back into view, I’m heading to Belgium for a block of racing that will include Ronde Van Brugge (De Panne has gone through another change in format and race name), E3 Saxo Classic, In Flanders Fields – From Middelkerke to Wevelgem, and Dwars door Vlaanderen.
I’ll be on the ground for both the men’s and women’s races, gatecrashing directors’ meetings, picking up transfer news, checking out service courses, and interviewing ex-riders along the way. It means exclusive content every day of the week, along with post-race analysis every evening.
With that in mind, now’s a great time to join the WhatsApp group. It’s just for fans, so no media, riders, or teams are allowed, and it gives you access to all my sound-file interviews from races, transfer news before it’s published, and much more. To sign up, just head to your settings and upgrade to ‘Founding Member’ status.
Now, over to Lukas with 10 conclusions from the women’s edition of Mila-San Remo.
Daniel 🫶
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Lining up with the defending champion Lorena Wiebes, everybody expected SD Worx-Protime to protect their sprinter for a second consecutive victory on the Via Roma, even more so since Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) had to pull out of the race due to illness. And the team played into this, controlling the early breakaway and chasing down the lone attacker, Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike), after the Cipressa.
But on the Poggio, Lotte Kopecky was ready when Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) attacked, following the move right away together with Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly). On the descent and the flat run-in, the situation was perfect for the team – Kopecky could point to Wiebes in the chasing peloton when asked to take turns, and Wiebes had a free ride in the group behind. And on the finishing straight, there are only very few riders who could have beaten Kopecky in a sprint, none of whom were in that front group.
In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that the team would share the leadership between Wiebes and Kopecky. Wiebes even said after the race that Kopecky was the “plan A” and that the team would probably have supported the Belgian in the sprint even if Wiebes herself was there. But after a disappointing 2025 season for Kopecky, they wisely kept this decision to themselves until after the race, when it had paid off.
The good news for the other teams is that you can only pull off a bluff like that once. The bad news is that with riders such as Wiebes and Kopecky, not to mention Vas, Lach, and others, they might not need such a bluff.