An ample selection of top-name fast men was overshadowed on Saturday's opening stage of the Tour de Pologne by Olav Kooij, just 20 years old but already crafting a name for himself as a bunch sprint star in the making.
The finale of stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne was anything but straightforward, as the combination of a large crash in the closing kilometres, a short rise with some 800 metres to go and then a sharp right-hand bend less than 250 metres before the finish all added to the usual bunch sprint tension.
But the young Jumbo-Visma racer was at the front at the right time, as teammates Tosh Van De Sande and then Mike Teunissen guided Kooij through the last bends to the perfect pole position for a short, intense sprint.
Kooij's latest success is the first WorldTour win of his career and his ninth of the season so far. If such a strike rate isn't remarkable enough, Kooij has shown he’s versatile, too, with two of those victories in the overall of stage races, the ZLM Tour and the Circuit de la Sarthe.
After his triumph in Poland, Kooij said that winning Grand Tour stages is his long-term goal but he recognised that a victory of this calibre against such a strong field already constituted significant progress.
"Last year I was already quite close here," he said, having taken second on stage 3 last year, "and that gave me confidence that I could do it.
"I already took some good steps this year as well, I gained confidence from the first half of the season so to get to this race and win the stage is really nice."
Kooij said that taking a victory against sprinting greats just added to his pleasure. When asked directly by one TV reporter about how it felt to beat Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), eighth on the stage, Kooij said, "it makes it nicer to win if you know the field is very strong.
"There are a lot of good sprinters here at the start line and it's also WorldTour level so I would say this is the biggest win this year. And we were aiming for a stage win this week, so it's always nice when you get it."
Kooij paid tribute to his teammates for guiding him through a fraught finale, saying that the first thing that he told Mike Teunissen was "just that he did a perfect job!
"Tosh Van Der Sande was in on the move on the corner at 800 metres to go. We gave the call for him to push and then Mike took over.
"If you can get 1-2 through a last corner like we did, then you have a really good chance of winning and luckily I had the chance to finish it off. Those guys were really important."
Although rival sprinter Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) pushed Kooij to the line, the Dutchman said that thanks to his position and the way the sprint opened up so late, he knew he had a good chance of victory.
"I felt he was on my wheel and he came a little bit next to me. But after the corner there wasn't the time to make up some space so I was still quite confident I could make it," he said.
Few of the top-name sprinters, including Kooij, seemed to be affected by the late, big crash, as it took place towards the back end of the peloton. But the Jumbo-Visma sprinter said he saw the after-effects of the pileup at the line.
"I hope they're OK, some of my teammates like Sam Oomen were caught up in it," he said, "that's never nice to see."
Such a technical, unusual 'flat' finish is not every sprinter's cup of tea, and Kooij said he preferred "fast ones, although," he added with a grin, "today also worked out pretty well.
"There's still a lot to find out about what suits me the best but today was a good one I guess," he concluded.
While Kooij continues his voyage of discovery in the sprints, for Jumbo-Visma, his success continues a remarkable run of triumphs on all fronts. After the squad's first Tour de France overall victory, multiple stage wins, and secondary classification triumphs, the team is an inspiration.
"We all get good morale," Kooij said. "You'd be doing training at home and then watching the Tour in the afternoons, and of course, that was a great success for the team. We wanted to do well here as well, to get a stage win and we’ve already done that."
As for where he goes from here after triumphing in a race with a long tradition of seeing young stars putting on early demonstrations of their potential, Kooij was cautious and while not hiding his ambition. He recognised he was already jumping up a few rungs of the ladder at a very quick pace.
"We'll see. Of course, it's a goal to win stages in the Grand Tours, but for where I'm at now, winning a race like this is a big step as well."
