Charlotte Kool 2nd after challenging and hilly day in the saddle at La Vuelta Femenina

Battling over the many hills and rolling terrain throughout the day, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL sprinted to second place on stage three at La Vuelta Femenina with Charlotte Kool.
After Monday’s reduced sprint finish, an even more challenging day in the saddle lay ahead of the peloton at La Vuelta Femenina. With over 2400 metres of climbing throughout the stage, which is the most in any at this year’s race, there was a sense in the bunch it could be a day for the break. As a result, a fierce pace was set in the opening part of the stage with several strong moves before eventually one lone rider Benito went clear. Things then calmed down, with all Team dsm-firmenich PostNL in the peloton, and the gap to Benito grew to almost six minutes.
On the main categorised climb of the day a good tempo was set by some teams and Kool, alongside many of the sprinters, had to let go of the wheels in the bunch. However, she was accompanied by Rachele Barbieri, Daniek Hengeveld and Abi Smith and once over the top of the climb they were able to return to the peloton in the valley road through some good teamwork. The final 30 kilometres saw the bunch eat into Benito’s gap and other teams kept the pressure on over the many rolling climbs. Hengeveld also helped contributed to the chase and the catch was made inside the last eight kilometres. Moving up well as a group, the team helped to bring Kool forward, as nervousness in the bunch caused a crash. Coming with momentum, Kool had to check her sprint a bit as it was too far to launch and when stage winner Vos kicked hard, Kool fought to the line to take a valiant second place after a challenging day in the saddle.
Speaking after the stage Kool said: “Today’s stage was really hard from the start. To be honest I didn’t believe it could end in a bunch sprint with how it started. On the main climb the pace was hard but it was actually okay all things considered, and we came back in a group with the help of the girls. Then in the final Daniek did really well helping in the chase. It was really tough then in the deep final as Visma of course tried to make it as hard as possible on any of the climbs and the punchy finish. Juliette and Eleonora did amazing in the lead-out to bring me forward in the last couple of kilometres. Then in the final few hundred metres I didn’t have the best position and I really missed a bit in my legs after the hard stage. I had some momentum but it was too far to go and had to wait to open up the sprint, and in the end it wasn’t enough for the win. I’m really happy that we gave everything and we tried together, and hopefully tomorrow it is a pure bunch sprint.”