Committed team ride as Charlotte Kool sprints to 2nd and takes 2nd on GC at RideLondon Classique

The last stage at RideLondon Classique saw the peloton battle through the streets of London and the traditional circuit. Almost always destined to be a sprint finish, multiple groups of riders tried to snap the elastic but the peloton were always in control. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL bided their time throughout the day, bubbled up well as a unit and keeping each other safe. Coming into the last laps where the speed ramped up, the team took position at the front of the bunch, aiming to set up Charlotte Kool for the sprint.
In the last lap the team rode brilliantly to always maintain that position as others fought around them, but unfortunately last lead-out rider Rachele Barbieri got blocked through a technical corner and lost contact with the group. Pfeiffer Georgi continued on and adapted, bringing Kool around the last corner with a clear view of the line, but having already spent quite a lot of energy, others were able to accelerate past Georgi. Kool then sprang from the wheels and pushed all the way to the finish gantry; ultimately taking second place on the stage behind Wiebes, the same place she and the team would secure overall in the race.
Speaking at the finish Kool said: “Daniek did amazing today keeping us safe on the circuit, then all the other girls did amazing. It’s a shame we lost Rachele in the deep final, we really missed her there but in sprinting sometimes these things happen. Pfeiffer did adapt quickly from then but unluckily the others came really fast from behind. We learned a lot this weekend and we can build from this going into the next races.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Kelvin Dekker added: “The plan was to be conservative all day and stay together through the technical circuit that we have here in London. I think we did great in that. Daniek did a really, really good job. She didn’t have the best of days yesterday but she had a really good day today. Everything looked really good until we lost Rachele in the lead-out so we missed her. I think you can also see that in the last 500 metres that it was the little push that we missed to really fight for the win. I think we did as good a job as possible and Charlotte did a good sprint, but we just missed that little bit, so second it is and second on GC. We know what to work on and we’ll build on this.”