One day on from Fleur Moors taking her first professional win, Clara Copponi sprinted to victory in GP Mazda Schelkens.
With 134km on the menu around the roads of Borsbeek, the Lidl-Trek women knew a bunch sprint was very possible and Clara had a real fighting chance. As expected on the rolling terrain, aggressive riders animated the race from the start. A handful of riders attempted to break away, but the Lidl-Trek squad maintained a disciplined tempo to keep things together for a sprint.
Repeated accelerations on the narrow and technical roads kept the breakaway threat alive but Lidl‑Trek kept driving the pace and neutralising any attacks approaching the finale.
On the run to the line, Copponi landed in a prime wheel—perfectly sheltering from the wind. As the sprint opened up, Clara timed her dash flawlessly, launching a powerful final surge to outpace the rest.
In Clara’s own words..
I’m super happy, my feeling at the beginning of the race was really bad but I knew that at the end I would be able to do a good sprint. It took me some kilometers to feel good again but I was ready for the most important moment of the race. We always had someone in the front with Fliss and Yaya to cover if attacks happened.
At 2.5 laps to go we were a group of around 20 with the whole Human Powered Health team and a few teams with many riders, so with Fleur we did our best to stay in good position. In the end, Fleur did an amazing job to put me in the best wheel for the sprint and I started my sprint at 150m to go.
I was feeling good all weekend so it’s super nice to finish with a win. My confidence is up and I’m ready for the rest of the season!
Thanks to my teammates and all the staff for their support.
