Just two weeks before taking the first stage and with it yellow jersey at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) was struggling to breathe properly at high intensity, despite “doing everything right” in training, only finding the solution thanks to specialists at the last gasp.
Kool struggled to explain the technical issue that was hampering her, gesturing simply to her chest and stating that “this part was a bit stuck and I couldn't really breathe through” before going to a professional, who “actually made it all loose and I could feel immediately like I could breathe again, literally.”
For Kool, 2024 had been a huge downgrade from her 13-win season the year prior, only managing one win before the huge triumph today in the Hague. And it wasn’t the eight runner-up positions that were annoying her most, but the feeling of something not being right.
“I didn’t feel well already the whole season but I thought maybe I was just missing a bit, but then, two weeks ago I still missed it when I did everything right in training and we really couldn’t put our finger on it. Then I had a bit of a fever so we tried to really find what’s now the reason why I’m not feeling really well,” said Kool during her press conference. “Normal training was all fine but it was just when I was really on the limit and I did my sprint, I felt I didn't hit it or something.
“To be honest I didn't care about the second places, it was more about how I didn’t feel well. If I get beaten and I’m feeling the best version of myself, then I can live with it, but I didn't feel my best version.
“Then I found finally the reason,” referring again to the breathing issue and late solution.“I think that for sure was the reason I finally felt like myself again and I’m really happy that it was just in time.”
When Kool hit the front early with 200m to go on the run towards the beach, she showed no signs of a breathing problem, only the strength required to gap a top-class Tour de France Femmes sprint field, leaving Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) in her wake.
There was to be no renewed round of her rivalry against former teammate Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), however, who suffered a late mechanical and couldn’t contest the sprint. But Kool had no idea, focusing only on the task at hand - lasting to the line to snag the maillot jaune, matching the men’s DSM Firmenich PostNL team’s achievement with Romain Bardet in June.
“It was of course a long straight so I knew it would be a bit chaotic but we are normally good in chaotic sprints. I lost my teammates but I think that was in the end, not too bad and I saw some chaos next to me but I didn’t really see what happened,” Kool said responding to whether she’d seen Wiebes lose her rear derailleur amid some light contact.
“I just had the feeling that I need to start my sprint now and I was happy it was enough because I suffered a lot and felt ‘Oof, it’s longer than I thought’ but I just went.”
Kool, 25, said she was honouring her late grandfather with the victory, who she lost in the last couple of years, emotionally embracing her grandmother after the finish.
“He was my biggest fan, unluckily he died I think now two years ago. My grandad gave everything to me and even when I got last he would cry because he was so proud of me,” Kool said as she detailed the interaction.
“It doesn’t matter how shit I was, he would always be there and will support me so after every race I used to call him. So I said to my grandmother, ‘This one is for my grandad’ and she’s having a tough time because they were so in love and he was, of course, her buddy for life so I told her that this one was for him.”
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