Kopecky wins Paris-Roubaix with GB's Georgi third

World road race champion Lotte Kopecky won her first women's Paris-Roubaix as Great Britain's Pfeiffer Georgi claimed a podium place in a sprint finish.

Georgi, 23, led out a six-strong group in the Roubaix Velodrome before being overtaken in the finishing straight.

But she fought back to edge out the Netherlands' three-time world champion champion Marianne Vos for third.

Italy's Elisa Balsamo finished second after being pipped on the line by Belgium's Kopecky.

"This was the goal of the season," said SD Worx-Protime rider Kopecky, 28, who was fifth in the Tour of Flanders last Sunday and won Strade Bianche in March.

The race, which features almost 30km of cobbles, was decided by a breakaway group of six riders that came together with just under 12km of the 148.5km route remaining.

They stayed together going into the velodrome before reigning British champion Georgi hit the front.

"It was so hard and so close on the line, my legs completely clamped up, I just wanted it so bad," said DSM-Firmenich's Georgi, who believed she had finished fourth before the final results were revealed on the stadium screen.

"I can't believe it. This is a dream race. I know it is not the win but it means a lot. Some of these girls were my heroes growing up so to stand on the podium with them is pretty crazy for me," she added.

The men's race will take place on Sunday, when the Netherlands' Tour of Flanders winner Mathieu van der Poel will attempt to complete the classic cobble double.

The world champion will be joined on the start list by Britain's Tom Pidcock, 24, who is a late entry after injuring his hip in a fall earlier this week.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider went down during a practice time trial before the Itzulia Basque Country and was forced to withdraw from the stage race.

Pidcock reported no lasting problems and will now make his debut in the monument - one of the five major one-day stage races - seven years after winning the junior version.