Lotte Kopecky is truly unstoppable and, after her extraordinary victory at the Tour of Flanders, today she wants to be the first at the Hell of the North. "I want to win again, but having already secured a Monument Classic gives me a different feeling" – explained the Belgian champion – "Naturally, my intention will be to stay at the front and avoid surprises".

After last year's triumph, Lotte Kopecky will race with number 1 on her back and once again she will be the favorite. It's impossible not to be impressed while looking at her palmares, which boasts two world road titles and 6 track titles, 3 Tours of Flanders, 2 Strade Bianche and last year's Paris-Roubaix in front of our Elisa Balsamo, for a total of 51 career victories. After last week's success, the world champion can now look at Roubaix with more serenity, but the desire to win remains high. "The victory at the Ronde really took some pressure off my shoulders. Not that I have less desire to win now, but having already conquered a Monument Classic allows you to start more relaxed and undoubtedly is an important advantage".

The world champion will do everything possible to immediately take control of the race, because in a difficult race full of pitfalls like Roubaix, it's important to always be at the front to avoid falls and choose the best side of the cobblestones to prevent punctures. "It would be fantastic to achieve the double victory of Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, it would be important for me but also for my entire team, SD Worx-Protime".

The Flemish rider and her team will certainly be closely watched and will need to carefully follow every movement in the group.

"But at Paris-Roubaix, everything must go well anyway. You can't have bad luck. And from this point of view, it's important to have several elements to rely on during the race and first of all, you need excellent teammates. For example, we have Lorena Wiebes as co-leader and I've seen that Martha Lach can do well on the pavé. Blanka Vas also seems to be strong on the stones and with Elena Cecchini we have an ideal lieutenant. Barbara Guarischi has enormous experience. In short, we're really starting with a strong team".

Kopecky also went to scout the course during the week and in particular tried the different cobblestone sectors. "They are still in poor condition, like last year. After four editions, the course is already in my head, but it's always nice to refresh the memory a few days before the race. Especially because we managed to do it in the same weather conditions expected for Saturday".

Whatever happens in the race, the world champion is satisfied with how her season has gone so far, where she achieved ninth place at Milan-San Remo, won by her teammate Lorena Wiebes thanks to the world champion's "train", a second place at Through Flanders and then the victory at the Ronde. "I preferred to have a long period without races and I felt this in the first events. It took a while to find the right feeling, but I definitely feel that my form is improving. I wanted to avoid reaching a dead point during this period, as happened in previous years. I hope to maintain this form for Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Although the attention will obviously be focused first on Paris-Roubaix. It would be fantastic to win Paris-Roubaix with the team after Milan-San Remo and the Ronde".