Charlotte Kool sprints to 2nd in hectic day of racing at RideLondon Classique

After yesterday’s opening day, the peloton were faced with some more short and sharp hills in the English countryside and combined with the “grippy roads”, it was set to be the hardest stage of the race. Riding well as a unit throughout the day, the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL squad stuck together. However, it was a chaotic and hectic stage where there were a lot of crashes; with most of the team involved in at least one fall throughout the day. Unfortunately, Megan Jastrab had to step off the bike after one of the crashes.

The rest of the team rallied around each other and coming into the final climbs of the day held position towards the front of the peloton. As expected, there were lots of attacks in the bunch with Pfeiffer Georgi in particular following the moves and nullifying them. Ultimately, things would regroup as the bunch charged into the finale, where Franziska Koch and Georgi brought fast finisher Charlotte Kool forward. The fight for position was intense as there was an uphill kick in the finale and a turn with around 100 metres to go. Kool dug deep to follow Georgi, then gave everything she could coming out of the last corner, sprinting to a nice second place at the finish.

Kool said: “Today was really chaotic but the team did amazing all day. It’s really sad we lost Megan in the crash and it took a while before everyone was back in the bunch after. Today I felt really good on the climbs, especially in the final ones. We found out I had a slow puncture yesterday after the finish which was a shame, so I was really motivated for today to give back to the team. I felt really strong in the final today, and gave my everything after Franzi and Pfeiffer did a really strong lead-out on the punchy finish. We are excited to go for more tomorrow, in the stage that should fit me the best.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Kelvin Dekker added: “We analysed yesterday’s finished and knew what we wanted to bring into today. It was a really hectic first one and a half hours of racing where basically everyone hit the ground at some point and then we sadly lost Megan from the race. That was a big bummer and not what she deserved after being out for so long at the start of the season. We had to adjust some roles and we adapted really good to the circumstances, so compliments to the team for that. Then in the final it was really messy. We could find each other okay but it wasn’t perfect and we made a couple of small mistakes. Yet, second is a lot better than it was yesterday, from all parts of the team and we can be happier with that. We will look back on the final and come with a plan to do even better tomorrow, but I think we can be really satisfied with this result today.”