From the start of the season, Charlotte Kool has run into bad luck and illness and has consistently come second to Lorena Wiebes in sprints. For a rider who was Wiebes’ main rival in 2023, seven runner-up spots before she finally won a race at the Baloise Ladies Tour in July was understandably frustrating for the DSM Firmenich-PostNL rider.
She started last season winning, besting Wiebes at the UAE Tour, but this year it’s been a string of disappointing near misses. But all those frustrating moments were eclipsed on Monday when Kool won the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, on home soil in the Netherlands no less, and took the first yellow jersey of the Tour.
“It’s unbelievable; it’s a dream come true,” Kool said at the finish. “This season wasn’t easy, but this is what it was all about.”
Not only did she win a stage, but the Tour’s Grand Depart taking place in the Netherlands this year meant all the Dutch riders were targeting the first three stages. Being Dutch, Kool would have started dreaming about this stage in particular the day the route was announced, but she wasn’t the only one. Wiebes, Marianne Vos, and every Dutch rider in the peloton will race the first three stages with additional motivation.
“A little bit hard to describe in words, but really nice how we finished it off and also with how hard we as a team worked, but also Charlotte in the last few months when it didn’t work out a lot of times as well,” said DSM sports director Albert Timmer. “So to take such a big win is amazing.”
The victory was made even sweeter after last year’s Tour where Kool failed to claim a stage but came close to winning against Wiebes in stage six. The next day she would finish outside the time limit on the Col du Tourmalet and leave the race early.
This miss was followed by two stage wins at the Simac Ladies Tour but may have been the start of Kool’s downward turn. Her 2024 season started much later than planned when illness kept her out of the UAE Tour. At the Vuelta a España Femenina, where she won a stage in 2023, her best finish was second on stage 3 behind Vos. At the RideLondon Classiquie, where she won two of the three stages last year, she finished second twice behind Wiebes.
The pattern continued up until the Baloise Ladies Tour, where in the second stage Wiebes was caught up by a near crash and unable to contest the sprint. Kool won the stage, convincingly.
According to Kool, the near misses themselves weren’t the problem. For much of the season, she just wasn’t feeling herself. “I didn’t care about the second places, it was more that I didn’t feel well. I didn’t feel I was my best version,” Kool said after the Tour stage.
Together with the team, Kool looked into why she wasn’t feeling well, and the solution was in her breathing. Once they were able to loosen up her chest, her breathing improved and so did her ability to tap into her top end.
“[We’ve done] a lot of work together with the team, with the right people, but also her mindset,” Timmer said. “She’s always looking for the little things, the improvement, but also not afraid to let the details go a little bit and look at the bigger picture. She really worked really hard for it to come back to the level where she actually wins a stage, so it’s really nice.”
“It’s definitely also mental. If you win last year I don’t know how many times, and this year it doesn’t work out, for sure it is in your head, but like I said, she’s every time put it behind her and kept looking forward again. The way she’s done it the last few months until now, it’s really really nice to see.”
A similar situation to Baloise delivered Kool her Tour stage on Monday. Wiebes was perfectly positioned by SD Worx-Protime only to suffer a mechanical mid-sprint. Kool came around her and kept going. She may not have beat the best sprinter in the peloton right now, but she was head and shoulders above the rest. Anniina Ahtosalo, who finished second, was two plus bike lengths behind Kool.
“I want to thank so many people: my trainer, who always believed in me, and everyone around me, especially those closest to me. This is unbelievable,” Kool said.
“It was really hectic, but I liked it. I kept thinking, ‘I like chaos.’ Then I went out so early, and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s too long,’ and it hurt so bad, but in the end, it was enough.”
But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter that Wiebes couldn’t contest the stage; Kool crossed the line first, and that is what will be remembered. Kool’s form was already coming good in July, everything was being positioned for the biggest race on the women’s calendar. During a season plagued by disappointment, Kool will wear the first yellow jersey of the Tour, and on home soil no less.
“This is the best day of my life,” Kool said. “Everything has come together, and it’s really special.”
At the finish line and on the podium Kool had a special fan looking on, her grandmother. After the stage she told her that the stage win was dedicated to her late grandfather who died two years ago.
“He was my biggest fan; he died two years ago. He gave everything to me, even when I got last he would cry because he was so proud of me. After every race I used to call him, so I said to my grandma this was for my grandad.”
There’s a chance Kool can keep the yellow jersey until Wednesday when the race moves on to Belgium. Both stages on Tuesday offer another opportunity for Kool, the first a sprint and the second a short time trial. The possibility of back-to-back victories is real, and even if taking the time trial would be a challenge, Kool might leave the Netherlands in yellow because of time bonuses for her win.
If Wiebes wins the second stage, Kool only needs to finish in the top three to retain the lead and would start last in the time trial on Tuesday evening. “Definitely she is one of the fastest. With Lorena, we don’t know what happened in the sprint, we couldn’t see, but 100% she is one of the fastest so tomorrow is a new day and a new chance,” Timmer said.
But what really matters, for Kool and for DSM, is that on Tuesday morning in downtown Rotterdam Kool will step out of the bus wearing yellow, and ride the streets lined with Dutch fans displaying the most iconic colour in cycling.
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