WNT crack Trek’s strangle- hold
Clara Koppenburg and her WNT-Rotor team pulled off a David versus Golliath inspired victory at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, to overhaul Trek-Segafredo from the race lead, and secure the team’s first wins of 2019 and the young German’s first pro wins.
The stage race was the first on European soil in 2019 for the women’s peloton, and the starstudded Trek team set the tone on the opening two stages. Ruth Winder took the race lead by winning stage 1 with a cannily timed sprint, accelerating away from a small five-rider breakaway on the final corner to the line. A day later, her team-mate Lotta Lepistö won the bunch kick in Villa-Real, after Trek took control and led out the sprint on the finishing straight, before the Finn repeated the feat on the final stage of the race.
Trek’s six-rider roster was undoubtedly packed with big-name talent, and expectations are high around what they could achieve this year. Their seven riders had amassed 115 career victories between them before the race had begun, and their three stage wins confirmed many people’s thoughts about how dominant they could be.
Yet though Trek dominated on the flat, it was stage 3 that was decisive for the GC, with a summit finish atop Xorret de Cati. Though just four kilometres in length, the climb – which has featured in the Vuelta a España three times - averages 11 per cent gradient and peaks at 20 per cent. At the foot of the climb, it was Koppenburg not Trek who was at the front. Having spent most of her career so far as a domestique prior to joining WNT this year, Koppenburg has been targeting improving her stage racing. And when the 23-year-old attacked with 2km to go, such was her strength she opened a gap and won solo by 49 seconds to take the race lead.
All Koppenburg had to do to secure the overall victory was survive the final rolling stage into Sagnut, which she did. Trek had shown their strength, but the day belonged to the young Koppenburg, who in her fifth year as a pro had finally got her first win.