Olav Kooij has finally secured his stage victory in the Giro d’Italia. The Dutch sprinter from Visma-Lease a Bike was the best in the mass sprint on Thursday after a fine duel with Casper van Uden.
After a long lead-out by teammate Wout van Aert in the final kilometer, Kooij was in a prime position for the stage win, but his compatriot Van Uden decided to launch the sprint from afar. Unlike in the fourth stage, when Van Uden won, Kooij was not boxed in this time.
The Dutchman followed his compatriot’s wheel and made the difference in the last 15 meters. At the finish line, Kooij had a bike length over Van Uden. The Briton Ben Turner finished third. Mads Pedersen, the leader in the points classification, finished fourth.
For Kooij, it is his first stage victory in this edition of the Giro and his second stage win in total in the Italian cycling tour. After the victories of Van Uden and Daan Hoole, this is already the third Dutch success in Italy.
Isaac Del Toro still has the pink leader’s jersey after Thursday. The Mexican from UAE Team Emirates has a lead of 31 seconds over number two and teammate Juan Ayuso. The Giro lasts until June 1st.
No crashes in feared corner
The twelfth stage was a typical transitional stage, in which the sprinters finally got another chance. Three Italian riders tried to thwart that with an early attack, but they were not given the opportunity to strike.
With 26 kilometers to go, the last escapee, Andrea Pietrobon, was caught and it was waiting for the mass sprint. Because the wind was blowing diagonally from behind, there was a chance of echelons, but they did not materialize.
In the final kilometers, Visma-Lease a Bike, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Team Picnic PostNL tried to keep their sprinters at the front towards the feared last corner 350 meters from the finish line. That led to some precarious situations. An unknown rider crashed.
Van Aert took the lead towards the corner and completed an impressive lead-out of more than a kilometer. As a result, Visma-Lease a Bike was the first to enter the corner and also crossed the finish line first with a relieved Kooij.