Charlotte Kool, once considered the primary challenger to Lorena Wiebes as the fastest woman in the peloton, has had a challenging season. Last year, Kool’s performances marked her as a formidable competitor, but this year she has mainly secured second places. Despite this, she remains determined as she looks towards the 2024 Tour de France Femmes Grand Départ in Rotterdam. “The Tour has been a very important goal for me for a long time,” Kool stated.
During the previous Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Kool, aged 25, narrowly missed victory when Emma Norsgaard of Denmark soloed to win just ahead of her. With Wiebes no longer overshadowing her at DSM, many believed Kool’s first Tour stage victory was imminent. However, this season has not gone as smoothly as expected. Although she recently claimed her first win of the season at the Baloise Ladies Tour, she has since struggled with her health. “I didn’t come out of that race completely fit,” she explained. “We don’t know what’s wrong. It’s complicated, so I can’t say much more at the moment.”
Reflecting on her victory at the Baloise Ladies Tour, Kool admitted she was not as satisfied as she hoped. “I couldn’t really be happy with that win because I haven’t been the best version of myself all season,” she confessed. “I haven’t raced poorly and have been competitive in tough races, so I have made progress over the winter. I felt really good in the preparation for this season. My training and racing values have improved, but I haven’t felt at my best all year. And that frustrates me.”
Kool acknowledges that cycling is unpredictable. “In a sprint, you never know what will happen. I hope to find the right feeling in the coming weeks. The Tour has been a very important goal for me for a long time. Around the Dutch National Championships, I started to feel better and thought I was on the right track, but now something strange is happening again. I hope it’s something minor that will go away with some rest.”
Despite not being in top form, Kool is excited about the Grand Départ in the Netherlands. She finds it special that the world’s biggest race will start outside of France for the first time, and that Rotterdam was chosen. “It’s super special,” she said enthusiastically. “It says a lot about the development of the Tour. It’s not as big as the men’s yet, but it’s getting there, and that’s great. I hope many people will come to watch the stages, and I expect this will give women’s cycling a huge boost in our country.”
