Olav Kooij set for Grand Tour debut at 2024 Giro d'Italia: "I'm really looking forward to that"
Cycling
Olav Kooij will make his debut in a Grand Tour in 2024, as expected. The sprinter from Visma | Lease a Bike will do so at the upcoming Giro d'Italia, alongside Wout van Aert and new GC leader Cian Uijtdebroeks.
Kooij is undergoing a stormy development and confirmed this with no fewer than thirteen victories in 2023. Last season he also signed a contract that will keep him with the Dutch team until the end of 2025.
Visma | Lease a Bike will mainly focus on stage victories in the Giro d'Italia. "I'm really looking forward to that," Kooij said during the team presentation. "I always keep setting goals and try to achieve them. I also go to the Giro with that feeling. I started here in the training team and thanks to good results I continue to make progress. Hopefully I can continue that."
Click here to create your own team for the Fantasy Cycling 2024 Budget. At least $6600/€6,000/£5,200 in prizes!
"We have a lot of goals in the Grand Tours. In all races we start to win. Last year we won many sprints and we can look back on that with pride," said Kooij, who will also ride the UAE Tour and Paris-Nice in the spring.
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024
- Keep telling yourself that Remco but you not only have Tadeg to beat but Jonas!frieders320-12-2024
- Seems farfetched - I agree. Mas has beaten him once. Giro d'Emillia I think - 2022mobk20-12-2024
- Barring injuries, by the time Pogacar's dominance fads there will be lots of new young talent. Pogacar is about 1 1/2 years older than Remco. That's nothing.Sweep20-12-2024
- I actually don’t find that too impressive. In my later forties I did similar figures for a 3.5% gradient as a total nobody with no wind assistance. Am sure there’s margin for improvement there, especially looking at all the names on that list.Mistermaumau20-12-2024
- Jonas', was 6 years agospock12320-12-2024
- The race where he overnight suddenly turned nuclear after being packfodder at best for several years. His Sky days after that Vuelta and Pogačar’s last season shall remain the darkest post Lance stuff cycling has witnessed. Good riddance Froome.
UltimateOpportunist20-12-2024 - Finishing the Vuelta seems to be a reasonably attainable goal. Getting on the team to do that will be the more difficult challenge.
santiagobenites20-12-2024