Visma | Lease a Bike active, Niewiadoma crashes heavily and Pieterse lights up finale, but Kopecky wins Sanremo Women
CyclingSaturday, 21 March 2026 at 15:55
Lotte Kopecky has won Sanremo Women. The Belgian was able to follow an attack from Puck Pieterse on the Poggio, unlike teammate and defending champion Lorena Wiebes. Kopecky and Pieterse then found themselves in a five-rider lead group, before the former finished the job on Via Roma.
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Half an hour after the men’s race, the women’s peloton rolled out, not from Pavia but from Genoa. With major names such as Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini absent from the Italian Monument due to altitude training in Vollering’s case and illness for Longo Borghini, there was no real early breakaway at first. As so often happens, the bunch stayed together for quite a while. The peloton start was also referenced in the original article through the official Milano-Sanremo X post.
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Vollering’s younger sister makes it into the “early” break
After 40 kilometres, Eleonora La Bella of Aromitalia Vaiano, Constance Valentin of Mayenne Monbana My Pie and Sofia Arici of Vini Fantini-BePink finally did break clear. Even then, the trio did not immediately open up a huge gap. That was partly because of a counter-move from the peloton, with a group of six riders, including Bodine Vollering, bridging across not much later.
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That made it nine riders out front, and they quickly built an advantage of almost four minutes. Two more riders were still trying to make their way across from between the break and the peloton, but that effort came to nothing. Just as in the men’s race, the situation became relatively straightforward: one sizeable breakaway, and then the bunch, where SD Worx-Protime in particular took charge of the chase.
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Women’s peloton blasts over the Capi
Although the women started in Genoa, the finale was the same as the men’s route, just as it had been in last year’s first edition. That meant the familiar stunning images of a charging peloton racing along the Ligurian coastline before reaching the three Capi with a little over 50 kilometres to go: Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta.
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As expected, there were no real attacks from the peloton there, but the pace in the bunch caused the nine leaders’ advantage to melt away rapidly. Only three riders still had enough left to stay clear: Bodine Vollering, Sofia Arici and Heidi Franz. Maya Kingma of Aromitalia Vaiano then tried to bridge across, an impressive move given that she had earlier been involved in a crash, but that attempt also failed.
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Action in the women’s race on the Cipressa as Nooijen attacks
In the end, Vollering and the rest of the break were caught just before the foot of the Cipressa. The question then was whether anyone in the peloton would already dare to make a move on the first of the two decisive climbs. Femke de Vries was willing to try it for Visma | Lease a Bike, but her acceleration did little more than thin out the bunch.
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After De Vries’ move, Lieke Nooijen got out of the saddle and accelerated, although one rider from either Lidl-Trek or SD Worx was consistently straight onto her wheel. When Kasia Niewiadoma launched for Canyon//SRAM after Nooijen, gaps started to appear on the Cipressa. Lorena Wiebes was suddenly put under real pressure, but the front group did not fully commit to pressing on together. Nooijen, however, did manage to go clear on her own.
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Terrible crash on the descent as SD Worx-Protime chases Nooijen
On the descent of the Cipressa, Nooijen opened up a useful lead, so the chase had to get organised behind. Niewiadoma looked willing to take risks, but it went badly wrong in an awkward right-hand bend. The Polish rider crashed hard into the barrier, and two riders behind her also came down. Debora Silvestri of Laboral Kutxa appeared to be one of the hardest hit in the incident.
It was a frightening moment, but unfortunately the race does not wait for anyone. SD Worx-Protime quickly found order again, with Blanka Vas moving to the front for Wiebes in the chase toward the Poggio. With other teams also trying to improve their position heading into the final climb, Nooijen was almost caught by the foot of the Poggio. Vas had done her turn by then, leaving Wiebes with only Lotte Kopecky still alongside her.
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Attack on the Poggio, but Wiebes is still there
On the Poggio, Nikola Noskova of Cofidis surged past Nooijen for a fresh solo move. But it was Puck Pieterse’s attack that truly made an impression. The Fenix-Deceuninck rider opened a gap, only to be countered by Dominika Włodarczyk of UAE Team ADQ. She crested the summit with a small advantage, while Pieterse and Kopecky were just behind.
Pieterse then flew down the descent, closed down Włodarczyk and helped form a five-rider lead group. Wiebes was left chasing on her own, which gave the riders in front a real opportunity. At the bottom, the gap to the Wiebes group was large enough, so the race came down to a five-up sprint. Kopecky, who had not looked especially dominant during the day, proved hugely powerful in the finishing straight and took the victory on Via Roma.
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Latest Comments
- Can anyone help me understand the thinking behind the two punishments? Are the commissaires saying you get thrown out of the race for a second inadvertent disposal of a bidon (even to the delight of fans) but that as long as you can afford it you can show off your phalangeal cuticles all day long on international TV? Aking for a friend.packfiller7112-03-2026
- It's a bit embarrassing that. Isn't the main sponsor supposed to keep them at 36.5 ?tomjacques03-03-2026
- They were close to cracking a very tired Tadej that wasn't fully focused on the TdF with a team of riders focused solely on cracking Tadej. And if they cracked him, he would have still won. Tadej won't be racing the giro this year. It'll be an even easier win for him.Veganpotter09-02-2026
- Nice!Bea22-01-2026
- Those events are mental rest for him. Fun, without expectations. *Sagan lost his abilities because he gained weight and got lazy. Pogi will likely retire before that has a chance at happening.Veganpotter14-12-2025
- Ah, the consequences of riding for Israel.Veganpotter11-12-2025
- Pidcock could follow everyone but Pogi while finishing 3rd. No second place rider this season😃Veganpotter16-11-2025
- Now the Palestinian protestors can stop their whining. Trump came to the rescue. So they can now STFU and go back to waving the rainbow flags.raufus15-10-2025
- Cracked the code lol. If it was that easy to 'crack the code' jonny Vegas would be charging up the Kwaremont giving Pog a dose of his medicine. Evenepoel can't match pog on a climb and neither can mvdp. Anything with a half difficult climb and Pog smashes the field. Even on flat(ish)parcours like Roubaix it came down to a mistake and crash by pog to definitively crown mvdp. MSR is the only one that Pog probably won't win.kevpt10-10-2025
- We've seen this movie before. I think Pogacar is doping.DeadBlow10-10-2025
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