Charlotte Kool: We all believe in Marta Cavalli
Dutch sprinter targets more Tour de France avec Zwift success in 2025
Unless you’re targeting the Tour Down Under or an early national road title in January, the December team training camps that litter the Spanish coastline aren’t specifically focused on training.
Of course, riding is important, but alongside that come all the elements of pro racing that we as fans rarely see. For instance, there are meetings. A lot of meetings. Endless meetings, in fact, as riders, sports directors, nutritionists, and all the remaining support staff use those few precious days in the winter to plan the next 365 days of non-stop competition.
It’s not rare for individuals on the same team to see each other in December and then unintentionally avoid one another for an entire calendar year, meaning that camps are just as much about getting to know each other as they are about efforts on climbs and equipment testing.
At the Picnic PostNL camp in Calpe, Spain, last December was the first chance for Charlotte Kool and her teammates to properly meet their new stage racing leader Marta Cavalli, after the Italian moved over from FDJ SUEZ in the off-season.
Cavalli is about to embark on a rebuilding year after losing most of 2024 to injury and bad luck, and Kool - as one of the leading riders on the Dutch team - has used the camp to get to know her new teammate in the limited time that they have together.
“It’s really nice and I think that she feels really welcome,” The Dutch sprinter told us in the team’s hotel lobby just after Cavalli’s interview with the Substack.