“I can fight out duels with those guys at the Tour” - Olav Kooij drops Tour de France hint after beating Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen

Olav Kooij needed a statement result with Decathlon CMA CGM Team’s Tour de France selection still unresolved. In Aarschot, he delivered one against two of the men he could soon be sprinting against in July.

The Dutchman beat Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen on stage 4 of the Baloise Belgium Tour, taking a narrow victory after a disrupted spring had left his Tour place uncertain. Kooij missed much of the early season because of a persistent virus, while Paul Seixas’ rise has added another major question to Decathlon’s Tour plans.

Kooij did not speak like a rider already thinking beyond that race. Asked after the stage whether beating Merlier and Philipsen gave him confidence for the Tour de France, he made the link himself.

“Definitely,” Kooij said in his post-stage flash interview. “I assume I can also fight out duels with those guys at the Tour, that is something to look forward to.”

The win was tight enough that Kooij waited before celebrating. Merlier was also left looking back after the line, with the final result only confirmed once the photo finish had been checked.

“I didn’t dare celebrate, but I looked at Tim and he had a bit of an idea,” said Kooij. “How did I ride the sprint? Unfortunately I lost my team-mates, but I found another way forward. Then I was a bit near Jasper and Tim. Eventually I ended up on Tim’s wheel and slowly came closer and closer. It was just enough on the line.”

That route through the sprint was not straightforward. The breakaway was only caught inside the final kilometre, denying the sprint teams a calm, clean run into the finish. Soren Waerenskjold launched first, Jake Stewart worked for Biniam Girmay, and Kooij had to improvise after losing his own lead-out.

“The circuit involved a lot of twisting and turning, and there was still quite a bit of up and down,” he said. “On the final lap the breakaway still had a decent lead. We really had to chase seriously, but at a certain point you know you are heading for a sprint. Fortunately I still had good legs.”

For Kooij, this was more than a single sprint win in Belgium. It was his third victory in a short period after an interrupted start to his first season with Decathlon, and it came against the exact level of opposition that would await him at the Tour.

“This gives a lot of satisfaction,” he said. “Especially after missing the start, it is extra nice to come back like this. I think we handled it well by first recovering fully and then building back up. The result is that I have now returned straight away at my old level.”

That level is the point Decathlon now have to weigh up. Kooij has returned from illness, won quickly, and beaten Merlier and Philipsen in a sprint where the finish, the field and the timing all strengthened his case.

With Seixas pushing hard for Tour selection through a very different route, Kooij has used the Baloise Belgium Tour to make his own argument in the language sprinters know best: beating the fastest men in the race to the line.