{"id":318538,"date":"2025-08-05T01:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T01:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318538\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T01:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T01:10:14","slug":"there-are-offers-all-will-be-revealed-in-due-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318538\/","title":{"rendered":"There are offers. All will be revealed in due course"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nA masterclass in messy conditions<\/p>\n

Kooij\u2019s win came at the end of a tightly controlled stage, in which a three-man breakaway \u2013 Lars Boven (Alpecin – Deceuninck), Donavan Grondin (Ark\u00e9a – B&B Hotels), and Patryk Stosz (Polish national team) \u2013 was kept on a short leash throughout. The peloton, led for much of the day by Soudal \u2013 Quick-Step, never allowed more than 90 seconds of breathing room, and eventually reeled them in with just under 40km to go.<\/p>\n

Despite slick roads due to intermittent rain \u2014 which caused crashes both early and late in the day \u2014 Kooij remained unfazed. \u201cHonestly, I didn\u2019t see the crash in the finale, but I hope everyone is okay,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a fall earlier on too because the roads were really slippery. Fortunately, the surface at the finish was dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"olavkooij\"\/<\/p>\n

Kooij has consistently proven himself one of the fastest sprinters in the peloton<\/p>\n

Sprinting lessons from the Giro<\/p>\n

Kooij credits some of his resilience and recent form to his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d\u2019Italia earlier this season, where he completed all three weeks for the first time in his career. \u201cIt’s not just about the sprints,\u201d he reflected. \u201cPushing through three weeks and learning how to recover quickly really helped me. I\u2019m glad to be racing again now in the second half of the season \u2014 and to have found good legs straight away. That\u2019s a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kooij is leading the charge, there\u2019s also a focus on youth development within Visma. Sharing the sprint duties in Poland is 19-year-old Matthew Brennan<\/a>, who only graduated to the World Tour team this season. The two had never raced together before Stage 1. \u201cHe\u2019s been impressive already this year,\u201d Kooij said. \u201cThis is actually the first time we\u2019ve raced together, and he led me out today. I\u2019m curious to see how he moves in the bunch over the next few days. We\u2019ll be riding for him in Stage 2 \u2014 it\u2019s not going to be an easy finish, but the team will be working for one of us from here to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether being the favourite added pressure in such finales, Kooij was pragmatic: \u201cNot really. In a sprint, being the favourite can actually help \u2014 especially when you\u2019re fighting for the right wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n

With one win already under his belt and more stages to come, the Dutch sprinter appears calm, focused, and very much in control. Whether his future lies with Visma or elsewhere, he\u2019s not letting contract speculation distract from the racing \u2014 at least not yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A masterclass in messy conditions Kooij\u2019s win came at the end of a tightly controlled stage, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-318538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114973496416089716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}