Visma | Lease a Bike sees two riders crash in Renewi Tour final: Kooij returns and sprints, but McLay unable to finish

Just four kilometers from the finish, several riders fell on the left side of the road. Among them were two riders from Visma | Lease a Bike: sprinter Kooij and lead-out Dan McLay. Nevertheless, Kooij managed to return to the peloton and join the bunch sprint. It was won in the streets of Breskens in Zeeland by Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step).

“The damage is fortunately not too bad,” Kooij said afterwards. “I was able to continue quickly, but of course, I had already wasted quite a bit of energy to come back, which made my chances much smaller today. Luckily, I feel good, and the goal remains to win a stage in the coming days. Tomorrow we will give it our all again to go for the victory.”

Kooij was brought back to the peloton by Christophe Laporte, according to the race report from Visma | Lease a Bike. For the Frenchman, it was only his second day of racing this season, after months of illness that had kept him out of action.

Sports director Marc Reef also saw that Kooij and the team were doing well despite the crash. “The team rode well together today. It’s a pity that Olav couldn’t do his best sprint because of the crash, but otherwise it looked excellent. Unfortunately, Dan came off worse in the crash and did not make it to the finish.”

The second stage of the Renewi Tour is another opportunity for Kooij, who will face a reasonably flat course with chances for another bunch sprint.