The 2025 Tour of Flanders unfolded over a 168.9 km course starting and ending in Oudenaarde. The pivotal move came on the Oude Kwaremont, where Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Liane Lippert (Movistar Team), and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) broke away from the peloton. This quartet maintained their lead over the Paterberg and into the final kilometers.
At the finish World Champion Lotte Kopecky was too strong for her breakaway companions, unleashing a sprint to cross the line for a famous victory. To the delight of the home fans she took her third Tour of Flanders title. Kopecky was delighted at the finish: “To win as a world champion in your own country, that’s what dreams are made off. This is a victory I’ll remember for a long time. The closer we got to the Tour of Flanders, the more I dreamed of winning it as world champion.
As they neared the end of the race Kopecky was a little worried about Pauline Ferrand-Prevot on her return to road racing this season: “I had confidence in my finish. I knew Liane Lippert was fast, but I couldn’t really judge Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. I did expect a late attack from Kasia Niewiadoma, but that never came. So I believed in my sprint and went all in.”
Kopecky felt good throughout the race: “I felt good on the climbs, but going into a sprint like that is always tense. Mischa Bredewold’s attack after the Taaienberg came at the perfect moment. It put Anna van der Breggen and me in the perfect position. That was also when I realized I had good legs. Anna told me, ‘You’re the strongest in this group,’ and that gave me confidence. After that, it was all about surviving the Kwaremont and then the Paterberg.”
Kopecky now has an incredible record in Flanders and every race has been different: “All three of my Flanders wins were different. The first I partly owe to Chantal [van den Broek-Blaak]; that one was, in a way, the easiest. The second I won solo, which was tough. And now this one, completely different again. But winning in this jersey makes it extra special. After we crested the Kwaremont, I thought: this is fine for me. “It’s just fantastic to win the Tour of Flanders in your own country, wearing the rainbow jersey.”
