Kopecky would have done things differently in the sprint but also calls out Gravel World Championship organizers

Lotte Kopecky entered the Gravel World Championships for fun, she said before the race between Halle and Leuven in Belgium. Nearly 135 kilometers and plenty of fun later, the Belgian found herself in second place, losing in a two-rider sprint to Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos.

Kopecky led the race throughout the day and eventually only Vos remained in her wake, but in the end, she had to concede to the cunning Vos. At 200 meters from the finish, Vos launched her explosive sprint, leaving Kopecky (who had just won the road race in the World Championships in Zürich) unable to follow suit.

"It’s no shame to come in second after Marianne," Kopecky remarked. "It was my first gravel race, but it was very different from what I’m used to. It was fun, but I had a lot of issues with my lower back towards the end. It felt like it was exploding. That was terrible because you have to keep pushing through all those bumps and potholes. It really bothered me."

Vos tried to put pressure on Kopecky in the final kilometers, but the Belgian countered strongly uphill. However, in the sprint, she could not match her competitor. "I should have approached it differently, but with Marianne, you never know. I should have started earlier," admitted the SD Worx-Protime rider.

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Kopecky calls out Gravel World Championship organizers

Despite this, the Flemish rider was the one driving the pace during the race. "After 36 kilometers, I attacked, and the group started to thin out. Then I attacked again, and only the two of us were left. At that point, I knew we would ride to the finish together," said Kopecky.

"I tried to put some pressure on the uphill, but she was just incredibly strong," she acknowledged before making an appeal to the camera. "I really enjoyed it, with all those people cheering on the sidelines, but I do want to point out one thing to the organizers. There's been a lot of talk about safety in the past few days, and there’s a part of the course, where we re-enter Halle, that is simply irresponsible. I hope they can make changes to that section."