Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) came from nowhere to win a messy sprint on stage 2 of the Renewi Tour, beating Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) to the line in Ardooie after a breathless day of echelon racing.
Visma-Lease a Bike led for much of the final 5km and looked to have the perfect lead-out set up, but Kooij dropped back for the final 2km, perhaps knowing it was too early with only Christophe Laporte left to guide him.
Jayco AlUla and Alpecin-Deceuninck found themselves towards the front under the flamme rouge as a couple of rogue solo attacks were closed down, but even a lead-out from Mathieu van der Poel couldn't catapult Jensen Plowright to victory after hitting the front first.
Kooij was waiting patiently in the bunch on the wheel of stage 1 winner Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), but was forced to find a new lane when he was squeezed off of it. Still, he had enough to sprint from around 10th position in the bunch, slingshotting with great speed to come around the likes of Bittner and Merlier, who were already going all-out, to take a decisive victory.
Milan Fretin (Cofidis) finished third just behind Bittner, with Merlier fading to seventh after battling shoulder-to-shoulder to make it to the final sprint.
Kooij's win and 10 bonus seconds gained on the line also put him into the overall lead of the Renewi Tour with three stages left to race. Merlier remains in second on GC on the same time, with Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) also on the same time in third, thanks to bonus seconds gained at the Green Kilometre.
"It was a fast day, mostly tailwind, but the sprint was headwind, which is always a bit tricky. I managed to find a way out and open up, and luckily I still had enough in the legs," said Kooij after his victory. "When you have a heading, you can leave it quite late.
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"[Positioning] is always a big part of sprinting, and especially in these races, it's all day quite a big fight for position, so we did a great job. We were maybe a bit early, but that also saved me some energy, and I'm really happy with this win."
How it unfolded
Almost the entirety of stage 2 at the Renewi Tour saw a breathless race from flag to flag heading away from the Belgian coastline, with the 172km from Blankenberge to Ardooie being covered at breakneck speeds due to almost four hours of flat-out echelon racing.
Minor breakaway attempts were made, but with the top riders coming to the fore in the exposed sections, it was the top favourites in the peloton and their teams who dominated action on the front for much of the stage.
Big splits formed several times as the riders completed rapid laps around Ardooie in West Flanders, with the high pace leaving several riders dropped off the back and desperate for sustenance, with average speeds approaching 50kph making feed zones tricky to navigate.
Echelons forming on stage 2 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Such was the carnage and fatigue that several riders crashed in the closing stages, notably Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) with 37km to go, and Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema Rockets) into a ditch 20km later.
Into the final 25km and the big names were coming to the fore again, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Belgian champion Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) bringing the latest wave of pain.
Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) drew level with overnight race leader Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) mid-stage, thanks to three bonus seconds earned during the green kilometre. His teammate Bastien Tronchon mopped up the second set of three bonus seconds, and Matej Mohoric (Bahrai Victorious) the final three.
The penultimate crossing of the finish line and bell lap was taken with 16km to go, with relative calm in the peloton, but things were set to kick off once again on the exposed roads. Visma-lease a Bike did the early damage, lining out what remained of the main peloton.
Into the final 8km, and Wellens was at it again, honouring the Belgian jersey in the best way with a vicious attack in an exposed section. He was marked by Lidl-Trek, bringing things back together for the last 6km, but several riders were still interested in trying something.
The sprint teams did eventually lock things up, though, notably Visma, who were working for Olav Kooij. This confirmed that action on stage 2 would conclude in a bunch kick.
Several sprinters were left to fight on their own in the finale, notably Merlier – who fought hard to get a good enough position to sprint for the win. Kooij was led perfectly into the final few kilometres, but the yellow jerseys of Visma disappeared from the front into the last kilometre as Alpecin-Deceuninck and Jayco AlUla had control.
Still, once the final run for home was launched, it was a very even fight between the likes of Merlier, Bittner and Fretin, until Kooij romped up the right-hand side of the road out of their slipstream and powered through the headwind to win stage 2 and go into the blue leader's jersey.
The final sprint on stage 2 (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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