The patterns that were drawn last week at the Kristallen Fiets (Het Laatste Nieuws) were largely followed at the Gala of the Flandrien (Het Nieuwsblad).
After his silver medal at the World Time Trial Championships, Alec Segaert was voted the U23 of the Year, Remco Evenepoel and Lotte Kopecky are the Flandrien and Flandrienne of the Year respectively.
For Evenepoel, who won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Vuelta and the World Cup, among other things, it is the first award at the Flandrien. He breaks through the series of 3 victories in a row of Wout van Aert, who became 2nd in the referendum.
Lotte Kopecky won with a large lead over Julie De Wilde. She has already won for the 3rd time in a row, just like Jolien D’hoore did for her. Grace Verbeke has also won the Flandrienne 3 times, albeit not in succession.
Kopecky’s election was extra spectacular, because she also received the Patrick Sercu Trophy. That prize does not reward the best road racer (m/f), but it does reward those who excel in another discipline. Because Kopecky is also world top on the slopes (with 2x gold each at the European Championships and World Championships), it was impossible to ignore her for this trophy.
