Charlotte Kool talks about what every great sprinter needs: "You should not have fear or be able to turn off fear in the final"

How is it possible that the Netherlands is producing one top tier sprinter after another? With that question in mind, RIDE Magazine turned to the key riders in question and tried to find an answer to that with Charlotte Kool.

What's good comes quickly. Or maybe it is fast, in sprinter language. The 24-year old Kool not only enjoys her victories. Sprinting also makes her happy. "I think that's the most beautiful thing there is. You usually build up the tension in such a race all the way to the end. Then the mind is at zero. Going towards your prey like a kind of lion. The prey is then the finish line. To get there, you are focused for an entire day and you try to spend as little as possible for such an entire stage."

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For Charlotte Kool there is therefore a clear dichotomy in a stage. The last kilometer and the rest of the race are a world of difference. "I always make it a kind of game to go through such a stage as economically as possible. Of course you need your team for that, but I just try to manage that as much as possible. Fortunately, the girls understand that very well. And they know very well how to bring me forward and how not. When I notice that I haven't climbed too many stairs in a day, it gives me a kind of satisfaction."

The last kilometer is a challenge both physically and mentally. The sprinters guild is therefore not for everyone. "It really has to be in you. That's not just physical, but I think really mental as well. You should not have fear or be able to turn off fear in such a final. For example, I see no danger at all. It's not that I'm consciously trying to do that, I just don't see that. When you do see that, it becomes very difficult. In that case you brake too quickly or you are not in the right position."

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Olav Kooij sprints to the win on stage 4 of the Tour de Pologne