Team dsm-firmenich take phenomenal sprint win with Charlotte Kool

After the opening prologue success Team dsm-firmenich took their second win of the week at the Simac Ladies Tour, positioning their finisher Charlotte Kool perfectly, who powered to the stage win in Lelystad.

A controlled stage, the peloton always had the measure of the three rider breakaway and Team dsm-firmenich kept most of their proverbial powder dry for the final. Reeling in the attackers and marking things in the finale, the team moved up superbly as the flamme rouge approached. Delivering fast-finisher Kool into a great position around the final corner, she opened up the afterburners and surged to the stage win in remarkable fashion; sitting up to celebrate and rewarding some great teamwork throughout the day.

A delighted Kool expressed: “It was really warm today and we had a slow start to the race. We thought today it wasn’t up to us to do the chasing and that worked out well. Normally we do the job but we didn’t have yellow, so it was time for others to do the chasing. Everyone in the team was then fresh for the finale and you can see what an amazing lead-out we can do. I made sure I wasn’t blocked in today. We know that if I can do my sprint then I’m really fast and today I could do just that and it turned out really well for us. This stage was a big goal for us so I’m really happy to take the win with the team.”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Kelvin Dekker added: “We sat together yesterday and discussed how we could win this. These stages are really prestigious in terms of the sprinters. I think two days ago we really carried the race but we weren’t the leaders anymore going into today so it wasn’t up to us to control it. We even made a few attacks with Elise and Francesca earlier to really show that we weren’t going to take the full responsibility. In the end, the leader’s team did and full credit to them; they really gave it everything to close the break down. We stuck with our plan and focused on our lead-out, sitting together; which we did in a really good way. When the break was caught we executed our plan almost to perfection. With Daniek and Francesca on the early efforts who really pushed it, then Elise took over. Franzi had a key role to deliver us into a narrow section first and she did that perfectly. Her timing was great, her physical effort was top and she did amazing. Then it gave Pfeiffer and Charlotte all the space we needed to do what they are good at, which is Pfeiffer delivering Charlotte into a position where she can sprint. In a free run to the line we know how fast Charlotte is so we brought her into that position and she proved that today. It’s a really nice way to finish off the stage after some super teamwork by everyone.”