Olav Kooij is relieved and grateful after his stage victory in the Giro d’Italia. The Dutchman wasted two earlier sprint opportunities in the Italian cycling tour, but on Thursday he did finish off the beautiful lead-out work of Wout van Aert.
“I am relieved,” said Kooij, after he had dealt with, among others, his compatriot Casper van Uden in the mass sprint. The latter had still beaten him in the fourth stage. “I had to wait a while for it, but I’m super happy to finish the teamwork. Everything fell into place.”
Kooij mainly owed his stage victory to leader Van Aert, who brought him through strong lead-out work as the first into the feared last corner 350 meters from the finish. “Only he can do that in that way. He did that exceptionally well.”
“I thought he might have come to the front a bit too early,” Kooij continued his story for the camera of Eurosport. “It was also wet in that last corner, so we lost a little more speed than I had expected beforehand.”
“But it’s Wout van Aert, so he can keep it up for a long time. The moment I expected the others, I looked aside. I was then able to catch them fairly well and then had a clear path towards the finish line.”