Rider diary with… Charlotte Kool

Hello everyone!

A memorable year is coming to an end soon where we together fought hard as a young and talented team against the best women in the cycling world. With this month’s rider diary, I would love to reflect on this together with you guys!

Being thrown into the deep end, multiple girls joined our team this year from the Juniors. I remember the moment I joined the team myself very well, which was a really warm welcome. I received a personal message from all the girls that they liked the fact I was joining the team and got a lot of help with anything that comes with riding as pro. I really appreciated this as I found myself in a completely different environment at that moment than what I was used to before. That’s why I felt the importance of the new girls feeling at home quickly in the team and I offered my help as much as possible to make them feel welcome directly at the start of the season and be there for them anytime needed, also off the bike. It’s vital because many things are not self-evident for Juniors joining a WorldTour-team, because as a team we work quite specifically and even though there is a good support system here, it can still be quite overwhelming. I hope they have had a similar experience as I had when joining the team.

Starting my second season at Team dsm-firmenich, I saw myself in another role; being promoted to first sprinter. The transition actually went quite naturally as I already had many experiences as finisher before, and the team had already started helping me prepare to be a finisher last year when I got my own chance in some races. It maybe felt a bit like I was on pause for a while but now I’m back to finisher again, it feels like I have never done anything else. Looking back to my first year, I learned a lot in the lead-out, which I now take advantage from. And it’s also nice to hear from the other girls in the lead-out: If you were in my position, you would have given 100%, because last season they saw that I am very committed to the team. As a result, I now feel all the confidence from the staff and girls I need to win races. Ultimately, everyone does anything to get you across the finish line first and I also see how hard the girls work, so that gives me a lot of energy and motivation to achieve the best possible result every day.

Celebrating twelve victories

I can only look back on my season with pride. If I could sign for twelve wins in advance… I would certainly have done so! Of course, the Tour de France Femmes is still a disappointment, but I am also proud on the other hand. I surpassed myself on the first stage and I might have surprised other people as well after surviving that climb and finishing third in the finale. I had to be at my best there, and I was. But the third stage – the first real sprint opportunity – hurts the most, as I blame myself for making a mistake in the deep finale and finishing only seventh. That is of course part of cycling, but it is a pity that it happened in the Tour. In contrast, I am less disappointed about the sixth stage, in which I won the reduced bunch sprint, but the only escapee Norsgaard finished just ahead, only one second earlier. It was very unfortunate, but as a team we did everything well there and we can’t blame ourselves that much. We were just one second short.

The best victory of the year? Definitely stage one of the UAE Tour! As a team, you believe in something, but to then also succeed is something extraordinary and magical. Everything went quite smoothly on that stage, but a crash in the final few kilometres basically messed up our entire plan. Then you see how well we worked together as a team: I was still at the front with Franzi (Franziska Koch, ed.) – who is normally not a lead-out – but knew exactly how to drop me for the sprint. That’s the great thing about this team; even if you are a climber, you learn how a lead-out works and that pays off in these situations. In the end, Franzi dropped me off perfectly and I crossed the finish line first in the sprint. That was truly magical, and I don’t think I can get that feeling again anytime soon. Despite the season just starting there, the ladies already had so much confidence in me – and to then share this victory with them directly… It was like a dream come true.

Close-knitted team and karaoke

As a team, we already showed our strength in the UAE Tour, but we didn’t sit still and took new steps in improving ourselves and our teamwork. For myself, I feel the development has accelerated quite a bit this year due to the help of the team’s trainers and experts. I feel really motivated to become better every day and I’ve got a really nice balance between races and training. It is also nice to see how our sprint train is developing and how important Pfeiffer (Georgi, ed.) is for me as the penultimate in the sprint. But it’s not just about how she drops me in the deep final, but also what she does for me all day long by keeping me out of the wind and riding me through everything and keeping me out of dangerous positions. Of course, it can’t go perfectly every time because of unexpected events in the race, but I think this team has the quality to be able to improvise and everyone exactly knows what to do. 

I feel that making these choices in the most hectic situations requires a close-knit team, like we have. The atmosphere is really good in the team, which isn’t always the case in different teams! That is our strength this season! Like you all could see in our Tour de France campaign, the karaoke microphone has become a permanent fixture in our team bus. After the Vuelta in the beginning of the season, I bought it as a kind of gift for everyone and now we have a really big speaker – which makes a lot of noise. All riders think it’s great, but I don’t think the bus driver is so happy with the karaoke haha!

Contract extension

There is no team in the peloton that suits me better than Team dsm-firmenich, which is why I recently extended my contract with the team until 2026. I think we have proven to be successful this year and this place feels like home for me. The girls around me are very important to me, so I’m also ecstatic about the news that Pfeiffer and other girls have signed longer-term contracts. I am very excited about the coming years with the team with the Tour de France Femmes an important goal next year, but for me personally, the Olympic Games are also something magical, but that is out of my control and we need to wait and see how things go. All I can do is keep doing my best – continuing to take steps and getting the best out of myself are the most important things.

I’m now preparing for the last race of the year at Binche Chimay Binche and hope to see you all there or next season!