On the first stage of the 2024 Tour de France Femme, and just two weeks before winning the yellow jersey, Charlotte Kuhl (DSM-Filmenig-Post NL) was struggling with breathing at high intensity, despite having “done everything right” in training.

Kuhl struggled to describe the technical issues that were holding her back, gesturing to her chest and saying, “I was a little stuck in this area and I couldn't really breathe.”

For Kool, 2024 was a big drop from her 13-win season the year before, with just one win before today's big win at The Hague. And it wasn't the eight runner-up finishes that bothered her the most, but the sense that something wasn't right.

“I wasn't feeling good all season, but I thought I was a little out of shape. But two weeks ago, everything was going well in training, but I was still not feeling well. Then I had a little bit of a fever, so I tried to figure out what was causing me to be sick. My normal training was fine, but when I really got to the limit and did some sprints, I felt like I wasn't hitting anything.” [To be honest, I didn't care about the second-place finish; I just wanted to get a good result. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] Details.