Giro d'Italia: Olav Kooij powers to stage 9 sprint victory as late Narváez attack is caught at last gasp

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Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) broke the heart of Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) in the finale 150 metres of stage 9 at the Giro d’Italia, producing a stunning sprint to both catch the Ecuadorian who attacked 7km from the line and outlast Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) for the win in Naples.

Narváez made his move on the final hill of the day, forcing the peloton into a frantic chase back down to the city which was led by Lidl-Trek and UAE Team Emirates. There were shades of the 2012 Tour de France where Bradley Wiggins led out Mark Cavendish in the yellow jersey as race leader Tadej Pogačar got on the front in the final kilometre to try and bring back Narváez for his fast man Juan Sebastian Molano.

Milan launched from the final leadout of Simone Consonni but the yellow and black jersey of Kooij was close behind and pipped him at the line. Molano was third at the line after the work of Pogačar.

This is the biggest win of Kooij’s career on Grand Tour debut at the Giro after he struggled with knee pain after crashing during the Giro’s opening weekend, bringing Visma-Lease a Bike men their first win since Dwars door Vlaanderen in March.

“This is what we were looking for, to get a stage win. The first two [stages] didn't go perfectly and today we had to fight for it because it was a really tough finale,” said a delighted Kooij. “The team really committed, although we weren't sure before because of the guys I was able to get in position and take the win.”

Kooij is one of the six Visma riders left at the Giro after Robert Gesink and Christophe Laporte had to abandon due to sustaining injuries in crashes. But as the best teams always do, they found a way to get him to the line.

“We knew we had to improvise a bit, especially in the last kilometre. Normally with Christophe, we had almost a certainty to get me in position but today we had to just not stick to one plan but see how the race evolved and do what was necessary.”

Kooij has been one of the top young sprinters in the peloton since turning pro with Visma in 2021, and he has already racked up 33 wins at just 22 years old but today was the best of all.

“This was the step I was looking for, at least the win,” Kooij said. “I was looking forward to my first grand tour and after some wins, I think this one is one I was really dreaming of.”

How it unfolded

The second-longest stage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia set off from Avezzano with the traditional Italian breakaway forming at the front. Polti-Kometa were the team on show today as Andrea Pietrobon and Mirco Maestri decided they would fly the flag in the break.

No one would join them in their efforts, leaving the peloton in a calm state for the next 50 kilometres as the race headed south, but Alpecin-Deceuninck did make their ambitions known by committing a rider to manage the time gap. 

This would remain largely the status quo for the first 150km of the whole stage, aside from a few unusual attacks over the first unclassified climb of the day which didn’t amount to anything significant. 

The race found life at the first of three intermediate sprint points on the day into Mondragone with Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) taking the maximum haul after admitting pre-stage that the punchy finale would likely be too difficult after he hurt himself in a crash during the stage 7 time trial. 

Alpecin-Deceuninck returned to their full strength at the head of the peloton with the whole eight-man roster in a line leading the peloton to the Intergiro sprint at Giugliano in Campania. Bad Giro d’Italia luck would continue for Geraint Thomas just before making it as he went down in a crash with Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) at a roundabout. But he was quickly back in the peloton, uninjured. 

Racing exploded in the final 40km as expected with the set of punchy hills around Naples starting at the Monte di Procida, where Alpecin again put the hammer down, alongside GC teams upping the pace to keep their leaders safe. 

This would put the likes of Merlier, Fabio Jakobsen and Tobias Lund Andresen (both DSM-Firmenich PostNL) out the back. Alpecin were aided in the pressure application by Groupama-FDJ until Laurence Pithie had an untimely mechanical.

Then with 27km to go, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) decided he wasn’t happy with the pace and launched off the front. He was joined by the likes of Ewan Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) in a tandem move after dropping a bigger group that had latched onto his move. 

The panache of the two-time World Champion was front and centre again at the Giro until the final uncategorised climb of the day. He had dropped Costiou and gone solo, but the Lidl-Trek-led peloton was melting his advantage away in the Naples sunshine. 

It wasn’t the charging peloton that mowed him down first, but a charging attack from Narváez who looked resplendent in his Ecuadorian national champion’s jersey, as he set off in pursuit of solo glory. 

His gap was growing on the downhill run to the city, aided by leadout trains behind not being at full strength and the likes of Lidl-Trek and Jayco AlUla not wanting to waste all their resources too early.

This is when UAE Team Emirates showed their ambition and race leader Pogačar decided he was going to commit himself to the efforts of Molano after the whole team had worked for his GC ambitions in the first week. 

It was fitting that it was the man who defeated him on the Giro’s opening stage that he put in a huge pull to try and catch, perhaps proving to be the difference when Milan and Kooij launched their final sprints to the line and caught the Ecuadorian just metres from a second victory at the 2024 Giro. 

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