Charlotte Kool sprints to 3rd in Tour de France Femmes after massive Team dsm-firmenich effort

The Tour de France Femmes started on Sunday afternoon in which Team dsm-firmenich immediately achieved its first success by sprinting to a good third place with Charlotte Kool.

This year’s edition kicked off in Clermont-Ferrand near the Puy-de-Dôme, where the men’s edition also passed in stage nine. An intriguing parcours awaited the peloton, with the tricky climb of Côte de Durtol in the finale offering the attackers a potential launchpad to deny the strong sprinters.

As expected, the race started calmly in which a few escapees were able to pull away in a controlled manner, with Team dsm-firmenich one of the leading teams at the front of the peloton. Unfortunately, Megan Jastrab and Esmée Peperkamp were involved in crashes, after which they finished the race at their own pace. With 30 kilometres to go the pace picked up steadily and the action started. The race split on the infamous Côte de Durtol, after which Kopecky went clear and Pfeiffer Georgi and Kool managed to establish themselves in a group behind some GC riders. Georgi did an incredible amount of work by taking the initiative in the chasing group to get Kool back for a sprint, and with success. When approaching the finish line, the groups came together after which Kool made an enormous effort from behind and sprinted to a very creditable third place.

Unfortunately, Juliette Labous lost contact with the main GC group but fought hard to limit the losses with plenty of racing left to go over the next seven stages.

After taking third place on the stage, Kool commented: “It was a really hard first stage, but we did really well the whole day. The team gave me the confidence which let me fly. I think this was one of my best climbing efforts of all time. At the top of the climb, I was a bit behind Pfeiffer but she waited for me and brought me back to the group ahead for a sprint. I really tried everything but was on the limit and ultimately, I am happy with second place in the bunch and third overall on the stage. We did everything we could and, especially with the crashes of Megan and Esmée – this was the best result possible today.”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Kelvin Dekker added: “We had a really clear goal as we wanted to go for a stage win with Charlotte and on the other hand keep an eye on the GC with Juliette. We didn’t succeed in both but we did everything we could. It was sad to lose Megan and Esmée out of the group in crashes and we missed them later on in the race. On the climb, Juliette couldn’t follow the GC favourites and lost 43 seconds crossing the line. Yet, we know Juliette gets better throughout a Grand Tour so we will keep fighting there. Charlotte did a really great effort on the climb and almost followed the fastest of the race, after which Pfeiffer brought her back to fight for second place. She was really on her limit after the climbs, so sprinting to third overall is a big achievement and something to be proud of. The team is in a good place and we’ll fight for the next seven days.”