Charlotte Kool raced to an impressive opening stage victory at the Simac Ladies Tour, racing round the short 2.4 kilometre prologue a full four seconds faster than second placed rider.
Kool’s victory is the culmination of expert preparation from both herself and the team behind the scenes, with a big focus on perfecting preparation for the race against the clock. Kool claimed the first race leader’s jersey at the race, whilst teammate Pfeiffer Georgi also finished in the top 10, eight seconds back
Elise Uijen set an early fast time, placing in the top three at the time of crossing the line, before teammate Pfeiffer Georgi also set a top five provisional time at the finish. Kool then blasted through the finish with the fastest time and no one was able to get near her.
After the finish, Charlotte Kool said, “It was really a team effort. The team did everything perfect in preparation. We prepare all year for this kind of prologue and TTs. Today, Kelvin and Albert both gave some good feedback about corners and the course. The staff have perfectly fixed for the pre-race preparations and cooling down. It’s really one for the team and I’m really happy to take the first win after not racing for a month. It’s a really good way to start the race.”
Team dsm-firmenich coach Kelvin Dekker added, “As a team, we spend a lot of time on TTs and everyone puts in a lot of effort – the experts we have on position, aerodynamics, but also training and preparation. The girls get a lot of energy from this, so today we were ready to smash it.”
“For Charlotte we know that this was a big chance. She’s had it in mind for a few weeks and has spent some time getting used to doing corners really quickly, something we worked on as a team too. It was really impressive to see how she took the corners today with full confidence. When she went down the ramp we knew it would be super fast but to win by 4 seconds is a big victory for her, really prestigious against these names. But it’s also a big victory for the team and for everyone who invests time in our TT setup. It’s great to give something back to all those people with a big victory like this.”
