Team dsm-firmenich

This Dutch team started out in 2011 as the women’s branch of the men’s WorldTour team. Throughout their history, dsm-firmenich has built a reputation for developing young riders, often signing talented riders straight out of the junior ranks. Many of the riders that have gone through dsm-firmenich’s system have enjoyed great success in the sport, including Floortje Mackaij, Coryn Labecki and most recently, Lorena Wiebes. 

Unsurprisingly, Wiebes' departure for SD Worx was the team’s biggest loss this year, but they also said goodbye to Floortje Mackaij, Liane Lippert and Leah Kirchmann at the end of 2022. However, despite the losses, the team still has the likes of top-five finisher at the Tour de France Femmes Juliette Labous, sprinter Charlotte Kool and developing Classics riders Pfeiffer Georgi and Megan Jastrab in its ranks. 

Though the team is a young one - and even younger with the signing of three juniors and four WorldTour debutants for 2023 - but they’re certainly not lacking in talent, and if their tried-and-tested system continues to work, they won’t have an issue developing this squad into successful racers.

Juliette Labous

Pfeiffer Georgi

Charlotte Kool

Nienke Vinke

Francesca Barale

Eglantine Rayer

Franziska Koch

Léa Curinier

Megan Jastrab

Eleonora Ciabocco

Esmee Peperkamp

Becky Storrie

Daniek Hengeveld

Elise Uijen

Maeve Plouffe

Anna van der Meiden

Racing

News

Race News

Kool keeps calm and collected ahead of Tour de France Femmes sprint showdown

Charlotte Kool has been a consistent winner in 2023

With an incredible set of results already in her 2023 palmarès, Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich) heads into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as one of the marquee sprinters aiming for a stage win and potential yellow jersey on stage 1. The Dutch sprinter has enjoyed a meteoric rise this year, and with a win tally that’s already into double figures the stage is set for another standout performance.

“If you had told me at the start of the season that it would be like this then I would think you were crazy,” the 24-year-old told 

“But I had good feelings all winter and made a really good decision to spend the off-season training in Spain. Then when we started at the UAE Tour at the beginning of the season I realised that it could be a special year but even so, winning and how I rode at RideLondon, even that was a surprise for myself. But as the season has moved on I’ve become more confident as I’ve gone from goal to goal and race to race. It’s been a natural progression.”

In truth, Kool hasn’t stopped winning since her first two stage wins and the green jersey at the UAE Tour in February, beating Lorena Wiebes in the process. Since the departure of Wiebes to SD Worx at the end of 2023, Kool has filled the sprinting void within the Dutch squad, stepping up seamlessly from lead-out rider to become one of the best sprinters in the world. Only Demi Vollering has more victories this season, with Kool already at a point where she has almost tripled her entire number of career wins in the space of less than eight months. 

“This year has been really exciting and I think that we’ve had a really good season so far,” she said.

“We started with a bang and the summer has also gone pretty well. Last week went well too, apart from the fact that I got sick on the last day in Belgium. That was a bit disappointing but each day has been getting better and better, so I hope to be 100 percent for the weekend.”

This coming weekend could see Kool pull on the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Sunday’s opening stage could end in a bunch sprint and given Kool’s form and her team’s consistent backing there’s no reason she can’t outgun the core of sprinters on the finish line in Clermont-Ferrand. The race represents the main goal of Kool’s season, and her entire winter was focused on hitting, and then maintaining her best form for July.

“I’ve been dreaming about the yellow jersey and stage 1 all winter. When I was making my efforts in the winter this was on my mind. I can’t say for sure that stage 1 will be a bunch sprint, because the hill at the end isn’t easy at all, and with so many riders at their top form, it won’t be easy. But we’ll go all-in for a sprint and then see what that brings.”

Of course last year Kool experienced a very different Tour de France Femmes. She was under orders to support Wiebes and would eventually leave the race early due to fatigue. Still, that outing provided both encouragement for the future and a base level knowledge with regards to competing at the biggest race in the world.

“I’m really happy that I got to experience the Tour last year,” she told 

“I realised how big it is and how many people are watching, and the level of media. It’s really something different, and for sure the biggest race that we have but last year I felt weak with fatigue and had to pull out. Hopefully the experience will be different from last year but going through last year’s race gives me a good knowledge of what to expect.”

“In terms of chances, it all depends on how we race but I think that the only sure sprint stage is probably stage 6. It’s a flat finish and then a few more stages can go both ways. It depends on how the GC is going and who wants to control the race. It’s hard to say but with the Tour it’s not easy. It’s going to be really exciting to watch.”

All being well, Kool will be in the mix for at least two stages at the race. The level of competition will be higher than ever but the breakthrough Dutch rider has growing momentum on her side, and coupled with her undoubted speed and team support, she could certainly add to an already impressive tally of wins in 2023.

“The confidence is there, and I’ve done it before,” she said when asked about going up again and beating Wiebes.“I should also be on a higher level than before because the Tour is my main goal for the year. The only thing we can do though is focus on ourselves, but ultimately if I want to win a stage I need to beat everyone, and not just Lorena.”

Features

Racing Features

Who is the best sprinter in the women’s peloton?

Some of the best sprinters battled it out at Scheldeprijs.

Stage race season. It’s a part of the calendar that we tend to associate with climbers and GC contenders, but it’s also an important time for the sprinters. After the cobbled Classics, a stage win in one of the Grand Tours is one of the biggest successes a sprinter can claim, and they’re always hard-fought races. After the Vuelta Femenina, the Vuelta a Burgos, and the double-header of the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour and the RideLondon Classique, the battle between the sprinters is hotting up and the questions around who will come out on top in the summer are gaining pace.

So, who will it be? At last year’s Tour de France Femmes, Lorena Wiebes seemed to cement herself as the very best sprinter, but that’s changed this year, with former teammate Charlotte Kool testing her limits, and the desire for versatility at SD Worx meaning Wiebes is moving slightly away from the pure sprinter mould. Moreover, the top sprinters have gone head-to-head relatively few times this season so far, so it’s hard to sort out a clear hierarchy. The Tour de Suisse will tell us a little more, as will the Baloise Ladies Tour, likely to be popular with sprinters preparing for the Tour de France Femmes. With just a few weeks until the Giro Donne starts, though, let’s take a look at how the sprinters are currently lining up ahead of the next Grand Tours.

With Lorena Wiebes’ move from Team DSM to SD Worx over the winter, the sprinting debate was one of the key storylines in the women’s peloton from the very first day of the season. Wiebes faced off with her former lead-out rider and closest rival Charlotte Kool in their first race of the year, the UAE Tour. On the opening stage, Kool resoundingly answered all the questions about how she would fare against her old leader, by beating her emphatically in the sprint in Dubai. From then, the pair traded wins, with Wiebes taking stage 2, but Kool coming back for a second win on the final stage.

So the answer was clear, then - the sprinting narrative of the year would be equally-matched Wiebes vs Kool? Well, it wasn’t quite as clear as that. Firstly, Elisa Balsamo was also winning sprints in February, just not against Wiebes and Kool, and into the spring the duel we were expecting didn’t quite materialise as Wiebes took on a more puncheur type role in the Classics. It’s now June, and Wiebes and Kool haven’t raced each other since the start of April. Do we really know enough to say who is the best?

At this point in the season, numerically, Wiebes wins: she’s taken eight victories so far. You could also say she’s looked faster and more dominant, taking wins by bike lengths when Kool was being close-run by riders like Clara Copponi and Chloé Dygert in RideLondon. However, making a definitive judgement is made difficult by the fact that so far, the contenders for the title have gone against each other sparingly few times.

Are the top sprinters avoiding each other?

To answer this question with a question: how many times have Lorena Wiebes and Charlotte Kool faced each other this season? Just nine times, or six if you only count the occasions on which either of them were contending for the win. They come away with two wins each. Add Elisa Balsamo into that mix, and the three biggest names have only started four races together this season: Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix. If you remember how those races went, you’ll have worked out that that means the trio have gone head-to-head-to-head in a sprint exactly zero times so far this season.

Whether it’s on purpose or not, the biggest names in sprinting have successfully avoided each other so far in 2023. The bad news is that after Elisa Balsamo’s heavy crash at RideLondon last week, her injuries are such that a return to competition before the Tour - let alone the Giro - is up in the air. It’s likely that Wiebes and possibly Kool will skip the Giro, but we’re hoping for a big showdown at the Tour. After Kool led Wiebes to two stage wins in 2022, will she be the one to deny her victory when they finally meet again this July?

Wiebes, Kool and Balsamo may fill up the podium spots in our best sprinters hierarchy, but there are a lot of riders coming up very fast behind them. Perhaps the biggest revelation of the spring has been Canyon-SRAM’s Chloé Dygert, who has returned from a few injury- and illness-plagued seasons with a bang. At the Vuelta Femenina and the Vuelta a Burgos, the American was giving the likes of Wiebes, Kool and Marianne Vos a run for their money, and at RideLondon she finally picked up her first WorldTour win on stage 2. Whether sprinting is even Dygert’s speciality is yet to be determined - she’s one of the best time trialists in the world, and was even climbing impressively in Burgos - but the basic fact is that her sprinting has been on a high level this season. She’ll be looking to start the Tour de France Femmes this year after missing out on the inaugural edition, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see her in the top five on any fast finish.

A rider we’ve seen relatively little of this spring, but who is sure to be at her best for the Grand Tours, is Marianne Vos. The Dutchwoman is pegged as an all-rounder, and we might expect that she’s slowing in the later years of her long career, but Vos proves again and again that she can win even the purest sprints. She won two stages of the Vuelta Femenina, and will be hoping to continue her Grand Tour record in the summer. We’ve not seen Vos better Wiebes in recent years, but she’s certainly capable of beating the likes of Kool, Dygert and Balsamo, and must not be left out of the sprinter conversation.

Other riders that have been knocking on the door of a big win this spring are names like Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ), Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Jayco-AlUla), all of whom have been rubbing shoulders with Wiebes and Kool this season. Grand Tours are notoriously unpredictable, and all it would take is an off day for one of the bigger names for one of these riders to sneak into a podium finish or even a win.

There’s also one of the veteran sprinters of the peloton, Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) who will be hoping to go out with a bang at the Giro, as it is her last race before retiring. The Italian had a successful Classics campaign, taking three podiums and a win at Le Samyn, and whilst she was slightly off the mark at the Thüringen Tour, Bastianelli is always consistent and will be carefully building towards the Giro.

Well, that’s what we’re hoping to find out this summer. It’s easy to suggest that Lorena Wiebes is still wearing the crown of best sprinter, and perhaps she is, but with so few clashes between all the top sprinters on the record so far, it’s difficult to say that with absolute certainty. The sad news is that with Elisa Balsamo’s injuries, we may be waiting even longer for the next three-way battle, but we’re certainly expecting some good Wiebes vs Kool vs the best of the rest action at the Tour de France.

After a 2022 season of total Wiebes dominance, the Dutchwoman is really being pushed this year, and things are getting tight at the top of the sprinting hierarchy. The Grand Tours may be mostly about the GC, but we’re gearing up for some great sprint fights, too.

Watch live and on-demand coverage of the Tour de Suisse, Giro Donne and Tour de France Femmes on 

 this summer. Territory restrictions will apply.



Women's

Women's Racing

RideLondon Classique: Charlotte Kool sprints to explosive stage 1 victory

Charlotte Kool celebrates victory on stage 1 of the 2023 RideLondon Classique.

Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) sprinted to victory on the opening stage of the 2023 RideLondon Classique after going with a late breakaway on an aggressive finish into Colchester.

Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) was her closest challenger in second, whilst breakaway animator Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) took third.

The early breakaway of Danni Shrosbree (DAS Handsling), Hanna Johansson (Torelli) and Francesca Morgans-Slader (AWOL O’Shea) were caught with 55km to go, and what followed was a full-on 30km of attacks with plenty of teams keen to avoid a bunch sprint.

That tactic succeeded when a small group got away, but perhaps less ideally it contained stage favourite Kool and her lead-out woman Pfeiffer Georgi, making Kool practically unbeatable even in the face of some aggressive racing.

“It was an easy day from the beginning actually, and then we tried to get a gap steady [to the early breakaway], and we worked really well,” Kool said at the finish. “And then in the final they went full racing. We had to adapt a bit, but we were with the right girls in front and then we had to finish it off. Pfeiffer did a perfect lead out, so a dream start.

“I think Pfeiffer showed again that she’s one of the best lead-outs in the world. She brought me in a perfect position.”

Starting in Saffron Walden, the peloton rolled out under blue skies and sun for the start of the 146km opening stage to Colchester. With a lumpy route but a flat finish on the cards, a bunch sprint of some sort was expected.

Almost as soon as the flag dropped for the official start, the breakaway attempts started with early attackers Hanna Johansson (Torelli) and Francesca Morgans-Slader (AWOL O’Shea) going up the road. The peloton seemed happy to let them go, and the pair built up a lead of two and half minutes after 30km of racing, allowing Johansson to take maximum points at the first QoM point. Scarlett Souren (Parkhotel-Valkenburg) attempted to bridge, and was later joined by Danni Shrosbree (DAS Handsling).

After 50km of racing, pre-race favourite Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) was involved in a crash and after initially trying to chase back to the bunch, the Italian abandoned. Up ahead, Shrosbree from the chasers joined the two leaders after dropping Souren. With still 90km of racing to come, the peloton seemed content to give the escapees a stable two minutes’ advantage, but it did start to come down again after the halfway point of the race.

With 60km to go, a heavy crash in the peloton on a traffic island saw several riders hit the tarmac hard, including Victoire Berteau (Cofidis), Sammie Stuart (DAS Handsling) and Arianna Fidanza (Ceratizit-WNT), who later abandoned. This crash took a bit of momentum out of the chase, but with the trio up the road tiring, the gap continued shrinking. They held on until the second QoM point, which Johansson won again to claim the jersey at the end of the day.

As the peloton hit the climb, some attacks started off the front of the peloton with Liv Racing TeqFind’s Katia Ragusa using the incline as a ramp to launch off. A handful of riders followed, including Lauretta Hanson and Elynor Bäckstedt from Trek-Segafredo, and the acceleration was enough to sweep up the leaders, but the peloton was careful not to let such a strong group get away. With 44km to go, Lizzie Deignan was the next Trek rider to attack, enjoying some time off the front in her return to UK racing, but DSM were quick to bring her back.

Despite the flat finish approaching, the attacks didn’t let up with several riders trying to exploit the rolling roads to put the sprinters into difficulty. None of the attacks really stuck until Jessica Finney (AWOL O’Shea) got a small gap going into the last 30km, but that was short-lived as again some Trek and DSM-led attacks reeled her back in. With 25km to go, a bigger group split off the front of the peloton, including Deignan, Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) and stage favourite Charlotte Kool (Team DSM). At the intermediate sprint, Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) took maximum points and bonus seconds.

With 21km to go, Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) launched a move from the peloton to try and join the leaders, with teammate Maike van der Duin then joining her to help. Going into the last 15km, Deignan tried to put the hammer down on the front of the lead group, but couldn’t force any splits and a few kilometres later, Dygert and Van der Duin joined them. The leaders were still only 30 seconds ahead of the peloton, so continuing to push was crucial in the last 8km.

Noemi Rüegg (Jumbo-Visma) tried her luck with 4km left, but heading towards the finale, it looked poised for a sprint. Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) and Paladin led it out for Kool and Van der Duin respectively, and once Georgi swung off to let Kool open up her sprint, the Dutch rider proved unbeatable. Clara Copponi was the closest rider, but no one could come round Kool at full-tilt and the Team DSM rider raised her arms over the line. Deignan sprinted to third, whilst Canyon-SRAM settled for Van der Duin in 4th after a long day of working.

Charlotte Kool now leads the race by four seconds over Copponi, and some thirty seconds over the riders who finished in the peloton. Johansson will wear the mountains jersey, Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) is the best young rider, and Kool leads the sprints competition, but Copponi will wear the jersey on stage 2.

RideLondon Classique 2023 stage 1 results:

Thalita de Jong (Liv Racing TeqFind) s.t.

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all three stages of this year’s RideLondon Classique from Friday, May 26 to Sunday, May 28. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.

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Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Juliette Labous	25	5	2190
Pfeiffer Georgi	23	7	2024
Charlotte Kool	25	17	1748
Nienke Vinke	19	0	449
Francesca Barale	21	0	397

Team dsm-firmenich

Team dsm-firmenich

The Team

Top Team dsm-firmenich Stories

Kool keeps calm and collected ahead of Tour de France Femmes sprint showdown

Who is the best sprinter in the women’s peloton?

RideLondon Classique: Charlotte Kool sprints to explosive stage 1 victory

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