“I have always known I’m a Classics rider. But to actually, finally have some top 10s is really nice.”
Cor Vos
Every year, there are riders who move teams and either sink or swim, transfers that help elevate a rider to reach new heights, and transfers that end badly for all parties. Normally, by the time the Classics have wrapped, it’s clear which transfers have transformed a rider for the better. But elevated doesn’t even scratch the surface of Franziska Koch on FDJ United-Suez vs Picnic PostNL.
The German road champion was already a fantastic rider, on the attack every chance she got, with results at the Simac Ladies Tour, Giro d’Italia, and Festival Elsy Jacobs. She doesn’t win often, because on Picnic PostNL, Koch was normally riding in a support role. She’s been in the lead-out train for both Charlotte Kool and Lorena Wiebes, but whenever she did slip up the road, you knew she was going to give that breakaway her all.
Everything changed when she joined the French super team. Already, at the Omloop Nieuwsblad, Koch made a decisive move to launch Demi Vollering to victory. Watching the two ride together, you would have thought they’ve been riding on the same team for ten years, not two months. Koch went on to finish fifth, 21 seconds behind her teammate Vollering.
Going into Paris-Roubaix Femmes on Sunday, Koch will be the team’s Plan A. It’s a new role that the German champion is frothing to take with both hands.
“I have so much fun with the team, it’s an amazing squad,” Koch told Escape Collective. “If you enjoy being around each other, it’s way easier to be one mind, basically. On the bike, you just have to know what the other ones need and where to be. The first few races already, it worked really well.”
“I was really excited [to join FDJ United-Suez]. I’m an adventurous person as well. I was always super comfortable in my old team. I stayed for seven years, and that already shows that I was quite happy there. My adventurous self just knew, Okay, if I really want to make a step, I have to leave my comfort zone.”
Koch at In Flanders Fields – In Wevelgem
Within a week, Koch emerged as not only one of the strongest riders on FDJ United-Suez but also as one of the top contenders in the peloton. It was Strade Bianche, and the team was riding for Vollering again, but it’s always good to have a backup. Much to Koch’s surprise, the team had tapped her to be Plan B, alongside Elise Chabbey.
“Strade was special,” she said. “For sure, not the perfect race, because of Demi having the puncture. Of course, first you think that’s shit. We thought she would come back, and we just have to cover the moves, make the other teams work basically. Elise and I managed to share the work really well and always be ahead of the race. And I think that was our strength in the final.”
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