A general view of the peloton competing during stage 5 at the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Annemiek Van Vleuten competing during stage 5 at the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Annemiek Van Vleuten (Image credit: Getty Images)
Annemiek Van Vleuten competing during stage 5 at the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Teniel Campbell competing during stage 5 at the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Anna Henderson competing during stage 5 at the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lotte Kopecky competing during stage 5 at the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) won the 2023 Simac Ladies Tour. The world champion placed third in the final stage 5 after leading out her teammate Lorena Wiebes to the stage victory, with only Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) in between the two.
The first half of the race, with seven laps of a hilly circuit with the Emmapiramide and Posbank climbs, saw a group of twenty riders, including Kopecky, Wiebes, and most other GC contenders, get away from the peloton.
Another group around Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) and Balsamo bridged to the front, and although Team DSM-Firmenich and AG Insurance-Soudal Quick Step tried to bring back the peloton, the front group went all the way to the finish.
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) attacked with 18.5km to go and got a 21-second advantage but was caught again just two kilometres from the line, and Wiebes was the fastest in the sprint.
“It was a long day. I was away with the group early on, and my teammates did a super job, increasing the gap to the peloton again here on the finishing circuit in Arnhem and closing the gap to Kasia,” Wiebes thanked Kopecky and Mischa Bredewold, who were in the front group with her.
“I like it when it is a smaller group with fewer sprinters in it; that makes it a bit more relaxed for me. The team controlled the race well, so I didn’t have to worry about anything. I still felt good going into the sprint, and we had a great lead-out with Lotte, so I had to finish it off,” the stage 5 winner was happy with how the race played out.
In the final general classification, Kopecky kept a five-second lead on last year’s winner, Wiebes, with Anna Henderson (Team Jumbo-Visma) 41 seconds down in third place.
“It stays in the team. And a second place is very good for me. With the time trial and the Cauberg stage, I hadn’t had much hope for the final podium for me,” Wiebes had no hard feelings about handing the overall victory to her teammate.
How it unfolded
The final stage was far from a procession, with seven laps of the well-known Posbank circuit followed by five laps of a hilly finishing circuit in Arnhem, covering 150.5 km in total.
On the third Posbank lap, an attack by Aude Biannic (Movistar Team) that was followed by Kopecky and Niewiadoma led to a group of twenty riders breaking free.
This group also included Wiebes, Henderson, Karlijn Swinkels (Team Jumbo-Visma), Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM), Millie Couzens, Christina Schweinberger, Yara Kastelijn (all Fenix-Deceuninck), Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek), Quinty Ton (Liv Racing TeqFind), Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM-Firmenich), Teniel Campbell, Ruby Roseman-Gannon (both Team Jayco AlUla), Laura Tomasi (UAE Team ADQ), Maria Giulia Confalonieri, Susanne Andersen (both Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Maud Rijnbeek (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick Step), and Femke de Vries (GT Krush RebelLease).
The gap to the peloton increased to 2:25 minutes after four laps of the Posbank, though van Anrooij, Balsamo, Bredewold, Floortje Mackaij (Movistar Team), Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ), Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM), Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), and Alex Manly (Team Jayco AlUla) were chasing in between.
This group made it to the front one lap later, and the peloton started making up ground as well.
With five laps of the eight-kilometre finishing circuit to go, the bunch was just 1:05 minutes behind, reducing the gap to only 39 seconds at the next crossing of the finish line. But now Kopecky and Bredewold began to put in everything they had, increasing their advantage to over a minute again.
Niewiadoma’s attack on the third-to-last lap also served to increase the pace at the front, and with one lap to go, the peloton had given up – not before Quinty Schoens (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ceratizit-WNT), and Henrietta Colborne (GT Krush RebelLease) had attacked from the bunch in a late attempt to get a result.
On the final lap, Niewiadoma’s advantage became smaller and smaller as Bredewold worked for a sprint and Mackaij and Roseman-Gannon tried to jump from the group. When the 28-year-old Pole was caught with two kilometres to go, Mackaij immediately countered and eked out a small gap but was reeled in again before the flamme rouge.
Kopecky led out Wiebes, and when Balsamo launched her sprint from Wiebes’ wheel to go around Kopecky on the left side, the world champion opened the gap on her right side to let Wiebes come through on the inside and easily win the sprint.
With the stage win, Wiebes also confirmed her green points jersey, while Swinkels collected enough mountain points on the final stage to win the polka-dot jersey. Bäckstedt defended her white U23 jersey through the final day while Lidl-Trek won the team classification.
The biggest cheers at the podium ceremony, however, were reserved for Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), who finished her career in a relaxed manner, riding at the back of the peloton, waving to the roadside crowds on the final laps.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
