After a long and slow day of racing at the Giro d’Italia, the finale of stage nine was fast and frenetic, as late attacks from the likes of Julian Alaphilippe and Jhonatan Narváez animated the stage in the closing kilometres.
After Lidl-Trek brought the peloton into contention in the final few hundred metres it looked like it would be their man Jonathan Milan who would take the stage win, but Olav Kooij managed to jump out of the Italian’s slipstream and throw his bike at the line to snatch away the victory.
Kooij is currently riding his debut Grand Tour, which he has had to be patient for, as he has seemingly been the best up-and-coming sprinter in the world for around two years now. At 22 years old, this victory shows the talent that the young Dutchman possesses, but it did not come as a surprise to many, as he has already proven his ability in his previous races, with 33 victories already to his name in his career so far.
Speaking in his post-race interview after the stage, Kooij reacted to his maiden Grand Tour stage win, as he said “this is what we were looking for, to get a stage win. The first two [sprint stages] didn’t go perfect and today we had to fight for it, because it was a really tough finale. The team really committed, although we weren’t sure before, but because of the guys I was able to get into position to take the win”.
Having already lost Robert Gesink and his leadout man Christophe Laporte from his Visma-Lease a Bike team in the opening week of the race, Kooij did not have a traditional leadout and had to position himself in the final few hundred metres to stand a chance against the other fast men in the sprint.
On how he managed to get into a good position in the final kilometre, Kooij said “we knew we had to improvise a bit, especially in the last kilometre. Normally with Christophe, it is almost a certainty that he will get me in position, but today we just had to just not really stick too much to one plan. We just saw how the race went and how it evolved to do what was necessary to get me in position”.
When asked about what this win meant for his career, Kooij stated “this is the step I was looking for. I was really looking forward to my first Grand Tour and after already quite a few wins, I think this one is really one that I was dreaming of”.
Having taken his win at the end of the first week of racing, Kooij can go into the rest day content and with a victory already under his belt. With the next opportunity for the sprinters coming on stage 11 after a difficult mountain stage the day before, this win will help to boost his morale for the coming stages and take a weight off his shoulders of getting that first Grand Tour stage victory.
