It's almost over, but not quite. After challenges on the track, road and gravel this year stretching all the way back to early February, Lotte Kopecky faces one final round of racing in the Track World Championships this week, but the Belgian star has promised that she will not be overdoing things.
Kopecky was one of the top performers in the multi-discipline 2023 Cycling World Championships across the board, not only securing road race gold but also netting victories in the elimination and points races as well as a bronze in the Omnium at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.
Be it riding for her SD Worx-Protime trade team or for Belgium, Kopecky has enjoyed an excellent 2024 season, too. Purely to focus on the autumn, the 28-year-old has captured triumphs in the World Championships road race, the European Championships time trial, the Tour de Romandie and - just last week - the Simac Ladies Tour. On top of that, she recently clinched silver in the Gravel World Championships as well.
As for flying to Denmark to be one of the 355 athletes from 40 nations taking part in this year's World Track Championships, Kopecky told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that she is fine with the idea of stretching out her season a little longer. But once Sunday comes around, she'll be done with 2024 and racing for sure.
"One week is still possible and it’s my own choice. The elimination and points race are also the two events I like doing the most," she told HLN on receiving her fifth Kristallen Fiets prize as the top Belgian racer of the year this week.
"Adding the Omnium would have been too much of a good thing. The Belgian Federation agrees with my choice. Whatever happens in Copenhagen, it won’t make my season any better, but I want to give it a chance and end this amazing year in style.”
With some understatement, Kopecky added that she felt like it had been a long season, and that although it was tough to switch off, she knew that time away from the bike was now urgently needed.
"The most important thing is to do things that don’t involve cycling, although, in reality, that’s harder than it seems: subconsciously, I’m so focused on my career at the moment that I often think about the next thing right away and don’t want to throw away all the work I’ve done," she told the newspaper.
"But the past three seasons have been very intense and long. It’s time for a serious break and to let my body fully recover, both physically and mentally. After the World Track Cycling Championships, I’m really going to take a break, I promise.”
It's symptomatic of her ambitions though, that Kopecky is already getting her head around what she wants to achieve in 2025. As she pointed out, she has twice taken a runners-up spot in a Grand Tour in her career, once in the Giro d'Italia and once in the Tour de France, on both occasions without any specific preparation.
"A classification in a grand tour is secretly in my head, but it is also a leap into the unknown. Let's first start by trying to take the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège next spring. Those are two great Classics that I would like to tick off.”
As for her fifth Kristallen Fiets trophy, she had not yet decided where to keep it. So far, she said, one was at her grandfather's house, another one was kept by her father and two were in her attic.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not that I want to hide these beautiful trophies, I just don't want a living room full of racing memorabilia," she said.
"I want to come home to a house with a normal living space, with baskets for my dog and a scratching post for my cat.”
