{"id":568352,"date":"2026-05-06T00:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/568352\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:53:10","slug":"things-are-really-not-going-our-way-lotte-kopecky-nets-another-second-place-for-sd-worx-protime-at-la-vuelta-femenina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/568352\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Things are really not going our way’ \u2013 Lotte Kopecky nets another second place for SD Worx-Protime at La Vuelta Femenina"},"content":{"rendered":"

A day after her relegation during the stage 2 sprint finish<\/a> at La Vuelta Femenina, Lotte Kopecky<\/a> was sprinting once more in A Coru\u00f1a, recording another second place.<\/p>\n

C\u00e9drine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) soloed to victory<\/a> with a late attack in the hilly finale. She held off the reduced chasing group for her 10th career win, while Kopecky led the rest home just four seconds back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was another runner-up spot for the Belgian, who took second behind another EF rider, Noemi R\u00fcegg, on day one in Salvaterra de Mi\u00f1ao.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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But Kopecky, who also picked up a fine and yellow card for her actions on stage 2, later told Sporza<\/a> that she wasn’t the team leader for SD Worx-Protime on another challenging day for the team.<\/p>\n

“Things are really not going our way,” she said, before noting that the team had resolved to work for Mischa Bredewold<\/a> in the final, given her strength on the hills late in the stage.<\/p>\n

“We had just decided that Mischa would sprint. It was clear that she was better on the climb, so the decision was quickly made.<\/p>\n

“Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold were very strong on the climbs. I was struggling and had to drop back. I was confident I could still get back into the race, though, as Letizia Paternoster still had a few riders with her in the chase.”<\/p>\n

Kerbaol’s attack, coming 2.2km from the line on a downhill run into the city, complicated matters, however. Liv-AlUla-Jayco led the chase behind the solo attacker, while SD Worx-Protime<\/a> had a tougher time getting organised.<\/p>\n

“The cobbles were tricky to ride on, and she chose the perfect moment to break away. With the roundabouts in the final 3km, it was difficult to mount a chase,” Kopecky said.<\/p>\n

“We lost sight of each other in the final bend. There was nothing wrong with my sprint. I know I can finish strongly, but today there was someone in front.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

“This doesn\u2019t help us at all for the time being.”<\/p>\n

Kopecky’s pair of second places is the best the team has to show for the first three days of racing, though more opportunities for a victory lie ahead, while last year’s third-placed finisher Van der Breggen<\/a> will lead the team’s GC challenge as the high mountains of the final weekend loom.<\/p>\n

Kopecky currently lies second overall in the general classification at La Vuelta Femenina<\/a>, now just two seconds down on red jersey Fransizka Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ) after she picked up 10 bonus seconds during stage 3.<\/p>\n

She has an opportunity to take the race lead on stage 4, which should conclude with an uphill sprint, but Kopecky’s primary concern is getting a stage victory.<\/p>\n

“Above all, we really wanted to win the stage. Anything else is a bonus,” Kopecky said. “If I can ride in the red jersey without a stage win, my Vuelta won\u2019t have been a success.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our La Vuelta Femenina coverage as the likes of Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and others battle it out. Don’t miss any of the breaking news, reports, and analysis from one of the biggest women’s stage races of the season. Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after her relegation during the stage 2 sprint finish at La Vuelta Femenina, Lotte Kopecky was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-568352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}