Charlotte Kool sprints to 2nd at rain-soaked and nervous edition of Scheldeprijs

A committed Team dsm-firmenich PostNL display on Wednesday afternoon saw the team help to control the break, before setting up finisher Charlotte Kool, who then sprinted to a good second place in Schoten.

Rainy, muddy and windy conditions awaited the peloton as they rolled out from the start line earlier in the morning. Setting out with a plan, the team rode cohesively as a unit and made sure they avoided any danger in the hectic and chaotic conditions. It was a relatively controlled race with only a one rider breakaway going after 50 kilometres before they were later joined by a counter-attacker. As the kilometres ticked down the team moved towards the front and turned up the pace, with the bunch catching the breakaway duo inside the last five kilometres. It was a hectic and nervous finale with a big fight for position where last lead-out Rachele Barbieri brought Kool forward in sight of the line. Launching her sprint, Kool showed a good turn of speed to kick hard, but was unfortunately surpassed by Wiebes in the closing 50 metres, ultimately taking second place on the day.

Speaking after the race Kool said: “It was a good race from the team in general. I’m really proud of how the girls put me in the perfect position and how we executed the plan like we wanted to. We were close but unluckily not close enough in the finish. We will keep on fighting like this and trust the process.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Albert Timmer added: “I think we did a good race in general. With Elise we had someone who could control the first big loop, and it was a nice showing in her first race back from injury. Nienke then did all of the positioning on the local lap which was really useful for us. We could then make sure Rachele and Charlotte were in position, which Daniek and Maeve did a good job of going into the last kilometre. Rachele then did a strong lead-out but for us it was too bad that Charlotte ended up second. I think Lorena was just faster than Charlotte today. We make good steps though and things are going in the right direction, and I’m confident in the future that it will be closer and closer.”