When the 2022 racing season ended, Pfeiffer Georgi didn’t stop. Legs still aching after Binche-Chimay-Binche, she and DSM teammate Charlotte Kool flew straight to the capital of Italy on a three-day sightseeing holiday of gelato, pizza, pasta and charming churches.
So, she knows firsthand that Rome wasn’t built in a day. The maxim ring trues for her own racing career too. Rather than an incandescent rise to glory, every season has brought gradual gains and lessons learned under the radar.
She has spent the last two years as the team’s road captain and a guiding force for Lorena Wiebes, but the potential for earning results in her own right is clear. Her spring highlight was ninth place at Paris-Roubaix. Then, in August, she took her first WorldTour podium at the Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden road race. She was upgraded to second place after sprinting against breakaway companions Marianne Vos and Audrey Cordon-Ragot as the legendary Dutchwoman was disqualified for using an illegal aerodynamic position.
Entering her fifth season as a pro with Team DSM, the 22-year-old is simultaneously an old hand and an exciting talent. She sums up her career so far as “a lot of development”, physically and personally. “When I joined, I wouldn’t have said I would be road captain. I was shy and quiet, I didn’t want to say anything or ask any questions,” Georgi tells Cyclingnews. “I’ve learned so much stepping up from junior; it’s quite a big jump.”
“My first two years, I was terrified in the bunch. I’ve definitely improved a lot. When I’ve got someone in my wheel that I have to lead out, or Charlotte [Kool] and Lorena behind me, I’m just so much more assertive and can move through the bunch because it’s my responsibility to get them there. Sometimes I find that easier than when I’m leader and have to get my way through. It gives me the extra incentive.”
In 2022, she was chief stoker of the Wiebes express, lending her cool head and big engine to guiding the dazzling Dutchwoman to her most prolific season yet. Georgi was on board for 19 of her 23 wins in 2022. The one that stands out for her was the Tour de France Femmes opener on the Champs-Élysées, coming from way down the pack in the final kilometre to come out on top.
However, as Wiebes joins Team SD Worx, it’s all change. Seven new riders join a Team DSM roster whose oldest rider is 25: new season, new dynamic. “I think Charlotte [Kool] is a really good sprinter, and we can…
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