'He's obviously world class' - Kooij leads Decathlon's sprint revolution for 2026

At just 24 years of age, Olav Kooij is already a prolific winner with 47 professional victories, including 11 this year. Among those career victories are three stages of the Giro d’Italia across two participations in 2024 and 2025, illustrating himself as one of the fastest sprinters in the peloton.

Naturally, with the yellow jersey aspirations of Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike, there hasn’t been room for Kooij to make his mark at the Tour de France. However, this isn't likely to be the case in 2026 with the Dutchman’s transfer to the French team, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, who will be known as Decathlon CMA CGM for the 2026 season.

"You know your contract is ending, and then the talks start. The program was important in that respect, with sprinting as a priority. The support and the equipment were also important to me,” said Kooij to IDLProcycling about deciding to join Decathlon after having his choice of teams with his Visma contract expiring.

There are likely to be at least six, possibly seven opportunities for the sprinters in the 2026 Tour, with the first to come on stage 5. Kooij will be hoping to become the team’s first Tour stage winner since Felix Gall in 2023.

An added advantage is that Kooij has shown his resistance to survive difficult stages better than plenty of other sprinters, none more so than stage 4 of this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, where he sprinted to victory on an attritional day to Trasacco.

Decathlon has demonstrated its commitment to Kooij's success by signing two key Dutch leadout specialists. Daan Hoole, who won the stage 10 time trial at this year's Giro d'Italia, joins from Lidl-Trek, where he played a crucial role in delivering Mads Pedersen to stage wins and to Jonathan Milan in the 2023 edition.

"It had been on my mind since the spring, but after Roubaix I decided to do it. I hesitated for a long time, but I think this is a good move," said Hoole. "Mads was disappointed, but he also understood why I was leaving. I'm going to miss Mads, of course, and he'll miss me too, because we've had a great four years together. Sometimes that's just how it goes."

Hoole, who will enjoy more freedom in the classics alongside his leadout duties, explained his decision to join the project with Kooij. "Decathlon was also interested, but for me, it was more interesting with Olav. I'll have a bit more freedom in the classics, because we don't really have a leader like Mads. I want to continue to develop in the time trial, and for the rest, it will mainly be with Olav and the sprint train."

Completing the Dutch trio is the experienced Cees Bol, who arrives from XDS-Astana after playing a significant role in Mark Cavendish's record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win in 2024.

"I don't know Olav very well. He's a quiet guy, but as a sprinter, he's obviously world-class. That makes it motivating to work for him," said Bol, who is content to sacrifice his own sprint ambitions.

"I've also helped a lot of other riders this year, such as Max Kanter. Sometimes it's frustrating to sprint for yourself and then find time and again that I just don't have the top speed," said Bol. "I do enjoy racing at the highest level, so in this case, I choose to stay at the highest level and do lead-outs," said Bol.

Sprinting is in a competitive place at the moment, with Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier, and Jonathan Milan all taking stage victories at this year's Tour de France, and it remains to be seen if Kooij will be the next to add his name to this list, but he will certainly be confident and feel the support from his new team heading into 2026.