Having a former Champs-Élysées sprint winner as your lead-out man sounds contradictory in nature, but it's exactly the luxury that will be afforded to Olav Kooij at the Giro d'Italia in 2025, with Wout van Aert set to be his main pilot on the first flat day on stage 4.
It's a partnership that the peloton was meant to witness at a Grand Tour for the first time in last year's Giro, but when Van Aert crashed out of Dwars door Vlaanderen, he only made it back in time for the Tour de France and left Kooij without his lead-out de luxe in Italy.
The Dutch fast man still won a stage on Grand Tour debut at the Giro in Naples, but abandoned two days later with a fever. The partnership is back in 2025, with Van Aert and Kooij ready to bring what they did to win five stages in a row at the Tour of Britain two years ago to the biggest stage.
"I think the past already showed that the combination of Olav and Wout is working quite well, if you look at Britain or Almeria last year," Visma-Lease a Bike DS Marc Reef told Cyclingnews before stage 3.
"It's most important that we bring Olav into the mix with Wout together in the sprints, and then if you have that, it will make a big difference."
Kooij was similarly excited at the prospect of having one of the best riders in the world guide him to the finish against the likes of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) into Lecce on stage 4.
"I think it's a really nice combo – Wout is one of the best riders in the world," Kooij told Cyclingnews on Sunday.
"You also saw on the first stage that when it's too hard for me, then he can still fight for the win. With the multiple goals we have, it's just exciting to be able to race for the win every day and make a nice plan to get the most out of it."
Kooij is hungry to get a second Grand Tour victory, but did start the race following a disrupted preparation. He fractured his collarbone at Gent-Wevelgem on March 31 and was unseen from competition until stage 1, where Lidl-Trek's infernal pace saw him get dropped and Van Aert finish second.
"The feeling is OK, it's been some hard days that were not really for me personally in Albania, but it's been good here to get started and get the race feeling back after the injury," said Kooij.
"I'm looking forward to hitting Italian ground and that first sprint opportunity."
Reef added: "It was a bit of a hurry to get him ready for the Giro, but from the moment he fractured to the start, we had to reschedule everything. I think he did everything he needed is ready to give it a shot on stage 4."
Stage 4 takes the peloton from Alberobello (Pietramadre) to Lecce, as the race hits home ground in Italy for the first time this year, with 189km of very flat roads and two laps of a finishing city circuit on offer.
After being put to the sword twice by Pedersen's team, Kooij, Visma, and all the other teams with pure sprinters will be desperate to ensure the Dane doesn't make it a hat-trick of wins in just four days.
Kooij would likely be the favourite if all things were equal coming into a flat finish among this year's Giro sprint field, however, there is still that question mark of how his form and top speed will be after a long time out with injury in spring.
"I think you never really know how you'll be. It was not ideal, but in the end, I think recovery went how we hoped, and we did as good a preparation as possible for the Giro," said Kooij to Cyclingnews. "It wasn't a perfect build-up, but I think it should be alright."
After completing his lead-out duties for Kooij, Van Aert will be looking to build into the race, following that bout with infection that hampered his Giro debut preparations, with Reef confident that his day will come sooner or later.
"We have to be realistic with Wout, especially after his run-in towards the Giro that was not perfect," Reef told reporters.
"We needed to think like this, as it was not perfect and there was a scenario possible that on day one, he would not be there, in the TT it would not be working, or even on stage 3 that it would not work.
"But we also know that this race is three weeks long and that there are many more opportunities coming when he gets the time to grow into the race, and that's not every day that he has to go to the limit.
"On day one, he had to fight and felt the opportunity, so he went for it, and you also see that as a consequence on day 2. Hopefully, with the rest day tomorrow, we have a more upward trajectory, and we will see much more from him."
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