Cycling: Lampaert wins prologue Tour of Switzerland, Kopecky the Tour of Britain

Two years after his prestigious victory in the Tour de France, Yves Lampaert has won the prologue of the Tour de Suisse. Two fellow Belgians also achieved resounding victories on Sunday: Lotte Kopecky was the overall winner of the Tour of Britain and Rune Herregodts won the general classification of the ZLM Tour in the Netherlands.

Two years ago, Lampaert of the Soudal Quick-Step team achieved the biggest win of his career, a time trial in the Tour de France. The 33-year-old from West Flanders can now celebrate another important victory, again after a time trial.

Lampaert completed the 4.77km course in the city centre of Liechtenstein's capital Vaduz in 5:05, 3 seconds faster than the Swiss rider Stefan Bissegger of the EF Education-EasyPost team. Since this was the opening stage of the race, Lampaert naturally is also the first leader of the race.

On the other side of the Channel, reigning world champion Kopecky of Team SD Worx-Protime won the general classification of the Tour of Britain. Kopecky had won the first two stages in Britain on Thursday and Friday and didn’t relinquish her leader's jersey in the final stage in and around Manchester.

Closer to home, theyoung Belgian rider Rune Herregodts of Intermarché-Wanty was the overall winner of the ZLM Tour in the Netherlands, despite a crash in the final stage. The 25-year-old won the time trial on the opening day and then kept the leader's jersey for the remaining four days of the race.

_{​#FlandersNewsService | Yves Lampaert of Soudal Quick-Step © BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS}