Ferrand-Prévot Runner-Up at Flanders Femmes as Kopecky Takes Record Third — "I Gave Everything on the Kwaremont"
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot came within a few bike lengths of the biggest road victory of her second career on Sunday, finishing second at the 2026 Tour of Flanders Femmes after a thrilling four-up sprint in Oudenaarde. The Visma-Lease a Bike leader was beaten to the line by home favourite Lotte Kopecky, who sealed her third Ronde title and moved clear as the sole record-holder in the modern women's edition of Belgium's biggest bike race.
The decisive move came, inevitably, on the Oude Kwaremont. With just under 25 kilometres remaining, Kopecky rose out of the saddle and lit the fuse on the race's defining sector, cracking the elite group down to a quartet: the Belgian champion, Ferrand-Prévot, Liane Lippert and Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney. From there, the four worked together through the Paterberg and down into Oudenaarde knowing a sprint finish was all but inevitable — and knowing Kopecky was the overwhelming favourite to win it.
"I gave everything I had on the Kwaremont," Ferrand-Prévot said at the finish, still catching her breath. "Lotte was just a little bit better in the final metres. That is the truth of the sport. But second at Flanders for the second year running — I am not going to be disappointed with that. We came here believing we could win, and we were in the last four. That is a performance I am proud of."
It is the second consecutive runner-up finish for the Frenchwoman at the Ronde, following her breakthrough 2025 second place that marked her return to the top of road cycling after the better part of a decade racing mountain bikes. Where 2025 felt like a revelation, 2026 was always going to carry different expectations: Visma had spent months building a spring campaign explicitly around a Flanders win for their French superstar, and Ferrand-Prévot herself had talked openly of targeting the victory ahead of Sunday's start in Bruges.
The sprint itself was textbook Kopecky. The former world champion latched on to Lippert's wheel with 200 metres to go, waited until the Movistar sprinter opened up her effort, then jumped clean at 150m to the line. Ferrand-Prévot came off Lippert's other flank and almost timed it perfectly, but Kopecky already had too much momentum. At the line, the Belgian raised three fingers for her three Flanders titles; Ferrand-Prévot, to her credit, was among the first to offer a sporting embrace.
Niewiadoma-Phinney rounded out the top four in what was her strongest Flanders to date for Canyon//SRAM, while Mary Le Court de Billot led home the chasers more than a minute later for fifth. Elise Chabbey, Letizia Borghesi and Ellen van Dijk all placed inside the top ten, with Puck Pieterse and Marlen Reusser completing the top ten in a race in which pre-race co-favourite Demi Vollering was notably absent from the finale after cracking on the Koppenberg.
For Ferrand-Prévot and Visma, attention now turns to Paris-Roubaix Femmes next Saturday, where she is the defending champion and the tactical calculus is completely different. On the open pavé of the Hell of the North, Kopecky's punch on the bergs matters far less, and Ferrand-Prévot's extraordinary power-to-weight and bike-handling — honed through years of cross-country and cyclo-cross — could give her the win her Visma classics campaign has been chasing all spring.
"Roubaix is a different beast," she said. "I know that race. I love that race. We have six days to recover, and then we are back on the cobbles. I will be ready."
Tour of Flanders Femmes 2026 — Top 10:
1. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime)
2. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike)
3. Liane Lippert (Movistar)
4. Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM)
5. Mary Le Court de Billot (AG Insurance-Soudal)
6. Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Oatly)
7. Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez)
8. Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek)
9. Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)
10. Marlen Reusser (Movistar)