After the last attacker, Silje Antvorskov, racing for the Danish national team, was reeled in with 14.5km to go, the final lap of the Copenhagen Sprint saw the sprint trains manoeuvre for position, preparing for the mad dash to the finish line.
On closer inspection, Cyclingnews analyses how the top sprinters and their teammates negotiated the streets of Copenhagen in different ways to achieve their respective results, with Lorena Wiebes and SD Worx-Protime coming away with the victory.
Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) would finish runner-up in the end, but with one lap of 10.3km to go, she was chasing back after a bike change, 23 seconds behind the front of the peloton, and in what was almost an impossible situation for a sprinter to be in so late in the race.
Two of her teammates dropped back to pull her to the peloton, where another Fenix-Premier Tech waited to help, while Mylène de Zoete and British champion Millie Couzens stayed in the first half of the bunch.
When Kool had moved about halfway through the peloton, Couzens took her on her wheel and moved the sprinter up further, using the outside of the 180-degree turn on HC Andersens Boulevard with 6km left to make up room.
De Zoete joined in after that, and at the right-hand turn on Nørrebros Runddel with just over 3km to go, the Fenix-Premier Tech train was in the first 20 positions, having salvaged a potentially catastrophic situation.
Unlike Kool, defending champion and eventual winner Wiebes and her SD Worx-Protime teammates were near the front of the peloton throughout the final laps.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
However, this work took its toll, and in the final kilometres, Wiebes had only Femke Gerritse and Lisa van Belle to support her. With her customary lead-out, Barbara Guarischi already dropped, the team adapted and kept Wiebes very close to the front, right next to the strong lead-out train of Lidl-Trek, giving Wiebes the opportunity of taking the wheel of Elisa Balsamo whenever she wanted.
Inside 3km to go, Anna Henderson did her last pull in the Lidl-Trek train on the left side of the road before handing off to Lucinda Brand, who had Clara Copponi and then Balsamo behind her.
When Brand took over from Henderson, she threw herself into the turn onto Nørre Allé just inside the 2km mark and accelerated out of the right-hander with such force that she opened a gap to Copponi, who had to work hard to come into the slipstream again.
By now, Wiebes had chosen to stay on Balsamo’s wheel instead of following every move of her two remaining teammates. Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) was sitting on Wiebes’ wheel, having been brought close to the front by her teammates several times on the final lap.
On the right side, Zoe Backstedt had been leading the Canyon-SRAM train for several kilometres until swinging off 1.5km from the finish. Tiffany Cromwell could not keep the same speed, making her and Chiara Consonni lose ground compared to Brand and Gerritse, who had taken Wiebes on her wheel again.
Van Belle went first through the tight, low-speed turn on Sankt Hans Torv with 1.4km to go, followed by Brand, Copponi, Gerritse, Balsamo, and Wiebes. Couzens again used the outside of the turn to move up, and Consonni followed her, squeezing through ahead of Kool.
The acceleration after the turn strung the race out, almost into single-file, and when Van Belle was done, Brand led the peloton onto the final kilometre and through the final left-hand turn. On paper, Lidl-Trek were now in a perfect position as Brand could pull Copponi, who would then lead out Balsamo … but the latter had Wiebes lurking on her wheel.
As the race crossed the Fredensbro embankment, 500 metres from the finish, Couzens moved into the wind with Kool on her wheel and pulled her sprinter alongside the Lidl-Trek train, abreast with Balsamo, and Veenhoven followed Kool.
When Brand swung off, and Copponi began her lead-out, Wiebes and Veenhoven touched shoulders fighting for Kool’s wheel. Wiebes got the upper hand and was a little bit to the right of Kool, directly behind Couzens, when the latter looked around and flicked her elbow to signal to Kool.
Kool, Wiebes, and Veenhoven momentarily drifted left, but with 250 metres to go, Wiebes launched her trademark acceleration and sped past Balsamo, who was still being led out by Copponi. Wiebes gained several bike lengths on everybody else within seconds, leaving no doubt as to who the victory would go to.
As Balsamo could not get up to speed fast enough on the left side of the road, it was Kool and Veenhoven who fought for the runner-up spot, with Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility) sprinting to fourth place on the right side and Consonni going around Balsamo for fifth place.