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Wout van Aert delivers team-mate Olav Kooij to stage one win at Tour of Britain
Dutch super-team claim one-two in Manchester after Kooij’s lead-out man finishes second, while Irish sprinter Sam Bennett finishes in third
Olav Kooij led home a Jumbo-Visma one-two on the opening stage of the Tour of Britain in Manchester as Wout van Aert began his push for the overall title by providing the lead-out for his victorious team-mate.
Van Aert led Kooij through the final corner less than 300 metres to the finish line on Deansgate and, having put him in the perfect position, still had the speed to hold off Irishman Sam Bennett for second, with the two team-mates mirroring each other’s celebrations at the finish.
Ineos Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock, who hopes to challenge Van Aert for overall honours over the next week, came in 12th with no time splits amongst the main contenders, but this was another show of strength from the dominant Jumbo-Visma team.
“I can’t ask much more than to get a one-two,” Kooij said. “With Wout in front to get us first and second into the last corner I knew it was just then straight to the line and luckily we got it.”
Five riders, including including Harry Tanfield and emerging British talent Jack Rootkin-Gray, had gone up the road early on a stage which started in Altrincham and looped around the hills above Manchester before finishing in the city centre, but Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma combined to ensure they never had much leeway.
This same route saw Mathieu van der Poel win in a much-reduced sprint when it was used for the final stage in 2019, but fresher legs on the opening day this time around saw a much bigger group come to the line together.
With the potential for sprint finishes on each of the first six stages before the general classification battle comes to the fore next weekend, this was the ideal start for Jumbo-Visma as they put down an early marker.
“We will look at it day-by-day but we know there is quite a lot of responsibility on us as a team to control things and get things together either for the sprints or the GC (general classification),” Kooij added. “It’s quite a hard task to get that right, we have multiple goals and we will see day-by-day how to get it right.”