Olav Kooij 8th at Milano-Sanremo, far from the best: "The dynamics need to be different for me to contend for the victory"
Cycling
Olav Kooij came to Milano-Sanremo with the hope of potentially sprinting for a Monument victory, however that dream was shattered on Cipressa when the trio of favourites took off to be never caught again. Behind, the groups including Kooij eventually came together and the Visma | Lease a Bike sprinter secured an 8th position for his team.
"In races like these, the dynamics need to be different for me to contend for the victory. When Pogacar’s team upped the pace on the Cipressa, I knew what was coming. In the end, I secured a strong finish, but I definitely want to return for more in the future. It was a tough race, both because of the distance and the high pace in the final. The team did an excellent job keeping me at the front and guiding me over the climbs," Kooij said in a press release.
"This may not be the result we came for, but given how the race unfolded, we have to be satisfied with it," said sports director Maarten Wynants. "We can be proud of how we presented ourselves today. We always race to win, but in the finale, it became clear that wasn’t an option anymore."
"After that, we maximized our result, and for now, we should be satisfied with that. We handled things better than last year, and this performance offers Olav a lot of perspective. We were hoping for a bunch sprint for victory, but today, three riders were clearly stronger than the rest. At least we have no regrets about how we raced."
Results of 2025 Milano-Sanremo:
| Position | Rider | Team | Time |
| 01 | van der Poel Mathieu | Alpecin-Deceuninck | 06:22:53 |
| 02 | Ganna Filippo | INEOS Grenadiers | + 00 |
| 03 | Pogacar Tadej | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | + 00 |
| 04 | Matthews Michael | Team Jayco-AlUla | + 43 |
| 05 | Groves Kaden | Alpecin-Deceuninck | + 43 |
| 06 | Cort Magnus | Uno-X Mobility | + 43 |
| 07 | Pedersen Mads | Lidl-Trek | + 43 |
| 08 | Kooij Olav | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | + 43 |
| 09 | Trentin Matteo | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | + 43 |
| 10 | Wright Fred | Bahrain Victorious | + 43 |
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- I love listening to Geraint Thomas, he is such a great sportsman.awp26-03-2025
- Liege or Amstel are a little different. Only he knows what really works for him. I'm a bit disappointed that he is not going to focus on any other races potentially until the Dauphine. If you don't have race days in the legs no matter how good you are it generally gives a negative result. I had argued that he knew what works for him the other day but he seems to have maybe a mental block or is still a bit gun shy from last year's crash, which to be honest, was pretty bad. He might be in his last season or two. I hope not because he can still do quite a bit of winning if he gets his head right.awp26-03-2025
- Do you need a tissue since I seem to have offended you with my comment?frieders326-03-2025
- You mean Liege or Amstel or Flech doesn't play to his abilities ? That's a cop out !frieders326-03-2025
- He beat a field of second rate sprinters....yawn!frieders326-03-2025
- He didn't beat any top class sprinters in this race so slow the roll!frieders326-03-2025
- I think, sometimes, women's races are more interesting because of their unpredictability due to their silly mistakes. The most recent ones seem to always involve Demi Vollering against SD Worx. 11% is way too discriminative. Is there no guardrail in EU laws that prevent this sort of discrimination?
KerisVroom26-03-2025 - Good for him but not exactly the most competitive field, though better than what Froome would try ;-) Let’s wait and see if he can keep things up over time.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- Huh? So when the men’s is boring and the women’s isn’t should they transfer money or how do you suggest to do things. Last I heard, it’s a bunch of mostly ageing chubby men who set the criteria for women’s races (and in most sports it’s still rather like how religions are run). Don’t think the girls are particularly against doing the same races as the men. Anyway, there’s a huge unjustified gap between 11% of and a difference of 11%. Doubt this happens at the Olympics.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- C’mon, nobody has ever spoken of Ganna in the same breath as those two until a few months ago and he showed how close a thing it can be when he’s on form, nobody can know in advance what form Remco will have, his Olympic form would cause even Tadej problems, and Wout, well, we’ll just have to wait and see but you can’t really write him off in advance.Mistermaumau25-03-2025