Van der Breggen to Kopecky: Five years of rainbow glory in the women's World Championships

Anna van der Breggen was already a champion in the time trial that week, but the road race confirmed her dominance. On the Autodromo circuit, with its punishing climbs of Mazzolano and Gallisterna, she attacked with 41km to go on the penultimate lap. Her move split the field and turned the finale into a solo procession. 

Behind her, teammate Annemiek van Vleuten, racing with a broken wrist, fought to silver, while Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini took bronze. Van der Breggen became the first rider in 25 years to win both road and time trial in the same Worlds, adding a second road title to her palmarès and extending the Dutch run to four consecutive victories.

The Dutch team dictated the race in Flanders, attacking with Annemiek van Vleuten to thin the field. Yet Italy remained calm. Elisa Balsamo, then 23, waited patiently as her teammates shielded her from the storm. On the final lap in Leuven, Italy hit the front with a perfect lead-out. 

Vos sat on Balsamo’s wheel, ready to pounce, but when the Italian launched her sprint she held firm. By half a bike length, Balsamo upset the favourite and ended four years of Dutch domination. Tears flowed for Vos, while Balsamo claimed Italy’s first women’s rainbow in a decade.

Few expected her even to start. A fractured elbow left Annemiek van Vleuten in agony and cast her as a helper, not a contender. Yet as the race splintered on Wollongong’s climbs, she clung on. A dozen riders reached the final kilometre together. 

Then Van Vleuten struck, launching a surprise attack inside the last 500 metres. The hesitation was fatal. Kopecky and Persico led the charge, but they arrived one second too late. Van Vleuten raised her arms in disbelief, sealing her second world road title and perhaps her most extraordinary. 

Pain, patience and instinct carried her to one of cycling’s great against-the-odds victories.

For half a century Belgium had waited. On Glasgow’s short, sharp circuit, Lotte Kopecky delivered. The rain-slicked laps had stripped the race to its core by the final kilometres. Kopecky waited, measured, then attacked with 6 km left on the final drag through the city. 

Demi Vollering chased but could not close the gap. Kopecky entered George Square alone, arms aloft, the first Belgian woman to wear the rainbow since 1973. 

It was her third rainbow jersey of that championship week (after two on the track), yet the most significant. In tears of joy, the 27-year-old celebrated a career-defining victory on a day that confirmed her as one of the peloton’s most formidable all-rounders.

Zurich brought cold rain and Dutch dysfunction, and Kopecky thrived again. The 154km course reduced the field to a handful of riders by the finale. The Dutch squad had arrived as favourites but once more suffered from internal discord and tactical missteps, leaving their leader Demi Vollering isolated at critical moments. Forced to take matters into her own hands, she entered the finale without support, marking attacks but unable to dictate the outcome.

In the final sprint of a six-rider group, Kopecky chose her moment perfectly. She surged past her rivals to win by half a wheel, with American Chloé Dygert taking second and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini third. Vollering rolled in fifth, left to ponder what might have been.

Kopecky became the first woman in more than a decade to defend the road title, mastering brutal conditions and tactical chaos to cement her reign.

The World Championships in Rwanda run from 21-28 September:

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