Lotte Kopecky has been hard to miss this past couple of seasons. Partly because often as not you'll see her around the front of any race she rides, and partly because she has been wearing the rainbow bands of world champion.
Her palmarès is shot through with major victories, especially in the biggest one-day races but also in stage races too: Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche – she has ticked them all off and many more besides.
Somewhat introverted but also somewhat quirky, the Belgian has tried her hand at a few left-field endeavours in her time. Find out about those and more in our 21 things below.
1. Belgian born Lotte Kopecky is proud of her Czech heritage, which comes from her great-grandfather.
2. She is probably the best Classics rider in the world, with three Tour of Flanders wins, a Paris-Roubaix and two World Championships road races. She can also turn her hand to stage races and has a number in her palmarès, but can lose out on the biggest climbs.
3. She has her own clothing line, LoKo, which is a wordplay on not just her name, but also the fact that she is just a little bit crazy from time to time. "People who know me know I'm sometimes a bit loco," she says.
4. As if to confirm the above claim, Kopecky was once seen to jump aboard a multi-seated 'beer bike' pedalled by fans, just for the fun of it.
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5. Perhaps even more emphatically, last year at the UAE Tour she took some time out to get what is surely the best view of the place – by doing a tandem skydive.
6. Kopecky's cycling journey began aged nine, when she followed her brother into the youth cyclo-cross ranks.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
7. Cycling was not her only sport though – she loved to play football and was also keen on basketball, skiing and gymnastics.
9. Continuing that theme, she has ridden the past three Olympic Games, mixing up track and road. Her best result was a bronze medal in the Paris 2024 road race.
10. Kopecky's favourite race is her home one – the Tour of Flanders. She has won it a record three times, most recently this season, outsprinting Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Liane Lippert in Oudenaarde.
11. Having ridden in the pro ranks since she turned 18, she already has 11 seasons under her belt and is signed with SD Worx-Protime up until the end of 2028.
12. She currently coaches herself, having split with her previous trainer back in 2023.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
13. Earlier this year she read a heartfelt message to her younger self as part of a campaign video for the Always period product brand. It addressed the idea of girls giving up sports in puberty and included the lines, "They've called you 'too much' so many times, haven't they? But… those things are what make you powerful, unstoppable, great."
14. Kopecky is one of the highest paid riders in the women's peloton, with reported estimates of a €900,000 annual salary.
15. In 2023 Kopecky and her family were devastated by the loss of her older brother Seppe to suicide. Just days afterwards, she paid homage to him by taking an emotional victory at the Nokere Koerse race.
16. A huge star in Belgium, she was voted the nation's sportswoman of the year in 2023, becoming the first cyclist ever to take the honour.
17. Kopecky has found that being such a big star comes with its downsides – such as everyone weighing in with an opinion. After the 2025 Classics season she spoke out on social media, saying: "I was really done with the opinions, high expectations, and really had the feeling I am just not good enough any more."
18. She has a golden retriever called Ollie.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
19. 2022 was her breakthrough year. She had won the Tour of Belgium overall and a Vuelta stage the year before – plus some smaller races. But in '22 she announced herself loud and proud with victories in Strade Bianche and Ronde van Vlaanderen, plus second place at Paris-Roubaix and a silver in the World Championship road race.
20. Her win at the 2023 World Championship was historic – she became the first Belgian to achieve the feat in the women's event in 50 years. The last rider to have done so was Nicole van den Broeck in 1973.
21. Kopecky is nothing if not persistent. After finishing second in her national road championship four years in a row (2014-2017), she finally stood on the top step of the podium in 2020 and has won three further times since.
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After cutting his teeth on local and national newspapers, James began at Cycling Weekly as a sub-editor in 2000 when the current office was literally all fields.
Eventually becoming chief sub-editor, in 2016 he switched to the job of full-time writer, and covers news, racing and features.
He has worked at a variety of races, from the Classics to the Giro d'Italia – and this year will be his seventh Tour de France.
A lifelong cyclist and cycling fan, James's racing days (and most of his fitness) are now behind him. But he still rides regularly, both on the road and on the gravelly stuff.
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