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Olav Kooij reveals his grand tour ambitions for next year: "Normally I will make my debut in the Giro or the Vuelta next year"
CyclingMonday, 11 September 2023 at 02:30
Olav Kooij was one of the trendsetters of the Tour of Britain last week. The 21-year-old Jumbo-Visma sprinter won the first four stages, won the points classification and saw teammate Wout van Aert win the final classification. Kooij has been very successful in short stage races so far, but he has yet to make his debut in a grand tour which Kooij expects to change soon as he reveals in an interview for RIDE Magazine.
"Normally I will make my debut in the Giro or the Vuelta next year," says Kooij. "That is something I am really looking forward to. I have a great program and I also receive every confidence from the team. When choosing to stay with Jumbo-Visma, I mainly looked at how I can further develop with this team in the coming years."
The sprinter could count on the interest of almost all top teams last summer. Nevertheless, he stayed with Jumbo-Visma. "It was not a must for me to start in the Tour de France next year. I'm only almost 22 and still have to learn what it means to ride a Grand Tour. I don't think you should rush too much to start the Tour anyway. There are plenty of other great goals to achieve first."
Kooij – who started this year in Gent-Wevelgem and Classic Brugge-De Panne, among others – does not see himself developing into a rider who will compete for the win in the monuments. "I felt that as a sprinter type I could also tackle more difficult competitions and compete for victory in the coming years. However, there is still a big difference between these classics and the monuments."
"I don't see myself making the switch to those big classics very quickly. I think I will always remain a sprinter. However, there are a number of classics that the sprinters may or may not be able to handle. These are competitions that I would like to focus on and that I can hopefully win one day."
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