‘For days like this, I am in the Tour’: Kooij hailed as ‘the Seixas of sprinting’ after first Tour win

The Dutch sprinter powered to the first Tour de France stage victory of his career on Wednesday, beating Max Kanter and Tim Merlier after a tense finale that was split apart by a late crash. 

Kooij had endured a disrupted season before even reaching the start of the race, but in Pau he delivered the kind of sprint that confirmed why Decathlon CMA CGM had placed their trust in him.

“This is beautiful,” Kooij told NOS after the finish. “For days like this, I am in the Tour. To take a chance like this straight away is huge.”

The finale had been anything but straightforward. A crash just outside the safety zone with 5km to go split the bunch and left several riders scrambling to regain contact, including yellow jersey Torstein Træen, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Kooij’s teammate Paul Seixas. Up front, only a reduced group remained in contention for the stage win.

Kooij, however, stayed calm and stayed in position. He said he had treated the stage like any other sprint day, even if the setting was the biggest race in the world.

“That is how I approach it, especially on a day like today,” he said. “These are the riders you sprint against all year. And in a finale like that, you do not really notice all the madness around it.”

That focus proved decisive. His key target was the bend with 1.1km to go, a point he had identified as crucial before the sprint properly opened.

“I knew there were many moments to move up, but also many moments where you could lose your place,” Kooij said. “I really tried to time it towards the corner at 1.1km from the finish. That worked out perfectly. Then I saw Astana were going to lead out the sprint, and that was ideal.”

From there, Kooij trusted his legs. Rather than wait for others to launch, he opened his sprint from distance inside the final 200 metres and never looked like being passed.

“In the last 200 metres, you just have to go,” he said. “If you wait, they come from behind. I had the confidence that my sprint was strong enough to go myself, and that proved to be the case.”

The victory carried extra meaning after a difficult start to the year. Illness delayed Kooij’s season until May, leaving his Tour selection far from guaranteed. Yet he gradually built back towards form, taking wins at Boucles de la Mayenne and the Tour of Belgium before arriving at the Tour.

“At the start of the year, it certainly did not always look like this would happen,” Kooij said. “But I kept believing and step by step I grew back to this level. With that in mind, this is even more special.”

His teammates were quick to underline the scale of the performance. Daan Hoole said Kooij had done much of the decisive work himself in the closing kilometres, even though the team had helped position him before the chaos erupted.

Hoole also drew a striking comparison between Kooij and Paul Seixas, the young French talent who has attracted much of the attention around Decathlon CMA CGM.

“Everyone talks about Paul and how good he is, but in sprinting, Olav is that kind of rider,” Hoole said to NOS. “It is incredibly impressive what he has done. He had to fight hard to be at the start here. A deep bow to him for riding at this level now, because he still does not have that much training work in his legs.”

Sports director Mark Renshaw was less surprised than most. The former lead out specialist pointed to the bond between Kooij, Hoole and Cees Bol as one of the foundations behind the victory, even if the buildup had been complicated by Kooij’s illness.

“The bond that these three guys have is very special,” Renshaw told NOS. “It has been in the making for some time now. It was delayed with Olav coming back into fitness after being ill, so it has not been easy at all. I think this has been a big part of the success.”

Renshaw said Kooij’s return to winning form had underlined his standing among the elite sprinters.

“When you come back from any illness, it is difficult,” he said. “For him to come back, winning in Boucles de la Mayenne, winning in the Tour of Belgium, winning in the Tour de France, that is the reason he is in the top tier of sprinters.”