Belgian Lotte Kopecky successfully defends her title at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich. Noemi Rüegg was the best Swiss rider in 11th place, three minutes behind.
After 154.1 km in the rain and cold, 28-year-old Lotte Kopecky won the sprint in a group of six ahead of the American Chloé Dygert and the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini.
Olympic seventh-placed Noemi Rüegg kept up with the favorites until the final lap - with excellent support from her teammates - before she had to break away. However, the 23-year-old from Zurich did not hang her head. She crossed the finish line with the first larger field and sprinted to a good 11th place behind the Hungarian Blanka Vas.
Elise Chabbey (23rd), who was no longer in full possession of her strength after her serious crash at the Tour de France, and Elena Hartmann (40th) also finished the race in the worst conditions.
The big losers in a race that was extremely exciting right to the end were the top favorite Demi Vollering, who is still waiting for her first world title on the road, and the entire Dutch team. Although the strongest team was represented at the front for a long time, the strongest team was downright amateurish in its tactics. Vollering did not get away and not surprisingly had no chance in the sprint in fifth place.
Instead, US rider Chloé Dygert won her first individual medal in the road race after a horror crash at the 2020 World Championships. She was previously stronger in time trials, where she won Olympic bronze. Longo-Borghini added another bronze medal to her medal collection - after the 2016 and 2021 Olympics and the 2012 and 2020 World Championships.
