Tour of Britain: Olav Kooij surges to sprint victory on stage 1 in Southwold

Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) overpowered Tord Gudmestad (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) at the line to win stage 1 of the Lloyds Tour of Britain.

In the bunch sprint in Southwold, Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) grabbed the final podium spot.

Kooij, who won the first four stages of the 2023 Tour of Britain in his last appearance, marked his presence by using a strong leadout by two teammates to jump into the first leader's jersey.

An early breakaway of four riders failed to hold off the peloton in the final dozen kilometres of the 161.4km opening day, and the sprint teams took over, with Visma's Matthew Brennan and another teammate leading Kooij in the final 1,000 metres.

Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling) launched an attack around the final two Visma riders, Brennan and Kooij, on a slight rise on the finish straight, but the move came too early. Gudmestad blasted from sixth wheel on the left side of the road with 200 metres to go and looked like he would disrupt the Visma plan, only to be passed by Kooij at the line.

“It’s a really good feeling, of course, it’s always nice to win a race, and I have good memories from here two years ago. I was happy to go back to this race, and I’m really happy to continue the success of two years ago,” Kooij told organisers after his win.

“We knew we wanted to end the last corner in a good position, which the guys did perfectly. We were there first, then I felt a really strong headwind and a little rise, so then waited for the right moment." 

Kooij holds a four-second advantage over Gudmestad in second overall and another tick of the clock on Hofstetter in third as they take on a second day in Suffolk on Wednesday for 169.3km around Stowmarket, taking in the Mid Suffolk and Babergh districts.

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the six-day Pro-level race was a flat procession from Woodbridge and winding northward to Southwold, for a finish on North Parade near the pier of the seaside town.

One small rise at Mill Hill with 56km to go provided the only KOM points on the day, followed 11.5km later by the lone intermediate sprint at Halesworth.

A quartet struck out as the breakaway of the day across the first 6km in East Suffolk - 21-year-old Brit Joshua Golliker (EF Education-Aevolo) going away with Team Flanders-Balooise duo Milan Lanhove and Victor Vercouillie and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma), the group gaining more than two minutes across the next 5km.

Rain fell midway through the stage with damp roads for Lanhove, taking the mountain points and the jersey for stage 2. The sun came out in full force for the sprint contest, also grabbed by Lanhove.

With under 40km to race, Lanhove and his companions saw their gap go under one minute. Visma-Lease a Bike, Picnic-PostNL, and Uno-X Mobility remained the most active at the front of the chasing peloton.

With the final 6km to be completed, the peloton had made their catch, with Vercouillie the last of the four to accept reversal of any fortunes.

The peloton charged on a tight procession towards Southwold, compressed on the small roads lined with high hedges, a large group of Visma riders controlling the pace in the middle of the bunch next to red jerseys of Uno-X.

Urgency was evident with 2.2km to go as Uno-X went to the front and accelerated. Lotto matched the pace with Ineos Grenadiers, but Visma positioned Kooij behind two teammates to set up the victory, the eighth of the season for the 23-year-old Dutchman.

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