Sparkassen Münsterland Giro: Olav Kooij comes out on top after chaotic crash marred bunch sprint

Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) was the fastest in a hectic sprint to win the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro for the second time in his career, ahead of Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Frits Biesterbos (Picnic PostNL) was third in Münster.

The 24-year-old Dutch rider surged through chaotic final metres, with his leadout Cees Bol setting a fast pace, overtaking the other sprinters to have a clear shot to the line on German Unity Day.

No teams could control the front of the peloton once the early breakaway was reeled in on the second of three laps of the finishing circuits, with Visma-Lease A Bike, Lidl-Trek and Uno-X all taking turns to set the pace.

Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen launched the sprint early, leading out his teammate Max Walscheid in his final race on German Unity Day. But they were quickly swarmed, and the German finished 12th.

“This is always a race with a really strong sprint field, and on the laps it's always quite hard to stay together. So also for us, it was not easy, but I think we managed to get in good position, and then actually the team helped me a lot. And then in the last 100 metres, Cees Bol came came to the front, and he kept the speed high. And I was in a position to launch myself. So when I went, I was just hoping to hold on,” Kooij said.

On the final lap, Kooij’s teammate Daan Hoole went from setting a hard pace at the front to getting a small gap, causing some excitement in the field.

“I was in his wheel, and I was like, ‘oh I needed to let a few guys in between,” Kooij said of the move. “But then I thought, like, ‘oh maybe I just had to gap and see how far he could go’. But it's really hard with the big roads in the last 3k. But I think was a nice try.”

“Just to win throughout the season, it's always really nice, and we hope to keep the momentum for the last races.”

For the first time, the race started in Borken, with the 196.6-kilometre route winding through the districts of Borken and Coesfeld before the traditional finish in front of Münster Castle. The key section came in the second half, with around 70 rolling kilometres through the Baumberge with several short, steep climbs. The terrain offered classics specialists a chance to put the sprinters under pressure. From there, roughly 50 mostly flat kilometres remained to Münster, where the race entered the familiar 4.3km city-centre circuit, which the men tackled three times.

Six riders escaped in the opening hour at the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro: Kelland O’Brien (Jayco Alula), Samuele Zoccarato (MBH Bank Ballan Telecom Fort), Ward Vanhoof (Flanders-Baloise), Samuel Leroux (TotalEnergies), Arno Wallenborn (Lotto-Kern Haus Outlet Montabaur) and Noe Ury (Foodmaker Gravelking), and they led for much of the day, including the small climbs in the rolling section.

Although there were a few attacks on those climbs, including the Gaststätte "Zum Coesfelder Berg and Daruper Berg, by Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek, causing some brief chaos, the peloton stayed together. Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal Quick-Step kept the breakaway on a tight leash, allowing the gap to reach no more than two minutes.

The break, now down to five riders, had 10 seconds as they crossed the finish line to start the first of the three laps of the finishing circuits, and were finally caught inside six kilometres to go.

Teams jostled for control at the front on the flowy, twisty circuit, with Decathlon CMA CGM at the front to start the final lap, led by Dan Hoele, who took a brief solo flyer.

Teams such as Uno-X Mobility, Pinarello Q36.5, Visma-Lease a Bike all took turns at the front to try and control the pace but no real organisation could be seen.

Result

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