She may be fearsomely serious, even ruthless on her bike, but does Lotte Kopecky have a playful side too, despite her burgeoning fame? Tom Davidson finds out
It is an overcast afternoon in the medieval Belgian city of Ghent, and a racket is beginning to stir. Throngs of people have gathered in Kouter Square, usually a tranquil flower market, for the homecoming of their hero. Suddenly, a wooden cart appears. It trundles past the crowds, who turn to stare. On it, two rows of raucous men face each other, each turning their own set of pedals as they slosh their drinks and sing along. It is a beer bike, a staple stag-do activity, and the revellers have just spotted someone important.
They cannot believe their luck. There, in the square, is the new cycling world champion, Lotte Kopecky, greeting the masses on a specially organised fan day. “I was just standing there taking photos with fans,” she remembers. Until, all of a sudden, she was not. Summoned by chants of her name, a slur in unison to the tune of The White Stripes anthem Seven Nation Army, Kopecky did something none of the men expected: she vaulted over the metal barriers to join them. “It looked funny, so I ran to the bike and I jumped on it,” she laughs. “The guys liked it. I got a lot of messages from them. They even asked me to come to the wedding. I couldn’t go, but it was a funny moment.”
It is a side to the world champion that cycling fans might not recognise. On the road and track, the 28-year-old Belgian is a straight-faced assassin, admired for the pedal-thrashing panache that has earned her world titles on the road and track, three national road race titles, Monument victories and six days in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. And yet, for all the hard work, there is time to play hard, too.
As she sits opposite Cycling Weekly, video-calling from a training camp in Spain, Kopecky emits a demeanour of professionalism; her hair is in a ponytail and she’s wearing a coral pink T-shirt. Aware that the Team SD Worx-Protime rider has recently launched her own clothing brand, I ask what is behind the ‘LoKo’ concept. “People who know me know I’m sometimes a bit loco. It comes from my name. Lotte, Kopecky – Lo, Ko,” she explains. “I like to do, not extreme, but crazy things. That’s why the name of this brand just really suited me.” The beer bike incident would appear to support her claim. Had there not been a video of it, the stag party’s beer bike tale might have seemed far-fetched. But there Kopecky is, in high definition on Instagram, serenaded and swigging cola from a plastic cup, dressed in bibshorts and a rainbow jersey.
The ‘Kopecky Effect’
When she won those stripes in Glasgow last summer, the first Belgian woman in 50 years to become road world champion, she knew
