Greig Leach

Clearly, every woman who started the fourth edition of Paris Roubaix Femmes wanted to win the race, and many had a realistic chance of doing just that, but Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) had built her spring campaign around winning today. As the five women ramped up their sprint, it looked like the World Champion was going to get boxed in. As Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) sprinted shoulder to shoulder on the inside, Kopecky had to swing up high to get around the equally fast closing Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) to contest for victory. But she wasn’t to be denied today, claiming the title of the Queen of Paris Roubaix. Georgi wasn’t quite able to just get pass Balsamo with the Italian taking second, and the Brit in third. Vos came up just a bit short on her bike throw finishing the day in fourth. Behind them, Amber Kraak (FDJ-Suez) finished fifth. Ellen Van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) who had done so much for her teammate finished about eight seconds later, with the rest of the chasers coming in nearly a half a minute after Kopecky.