"This is a bit of a disappointment" - No joy for Mathieu van der Poel in Olav Kooij's silver medal for the Dutch at 2024 European Championships

The 2024 European Championship road race was widely expected pre-race to end in a bunch sprint. Despite Mathieu van der Poel doing his very best to stop that happening, it was, in the end, the result. As a double blow for Van der Poel, his teammate Olav Kooij then narrowly missed out on victory, sprinting to a close 2nd at the finish line.

"I made it a tough race, but Italy eventually came back. That was to be expected, with that strong block. There was a chance, but I have to say that I didn't have my super legs either. It was to be expected that the gap should have been bigger," Van der Poel assesses of the day in his post-race interview immediately following the finale. "The tactic was to always have someone with us, so we didn't have to ride from behind. I think we did that well."

With 50km to go, Van der Poel was part of a breakaway that also included the likes of defending European champion Christophe Laporte and former world champion, Mads Pedersen. Despite some good cohesion among the attackers, the peloton simply denied any real leeway and heading into the final 20km, Van der Poel was back in the peloton, refocusing on the leadout for Kooij in the final sprint.

"It was quite hectic, as expected. Long straight and then headwind. At first I was behind Olav. We wanted to pass him, but that didn't really work. He was in a pretty good position. I was there with Mike, but we just missed him," the Dutchman says of the finale. "I did what I could do. I think that was the plan, and then at the end with the whole team for Olav. We knew it was going to be difficult. I had already done my thing on the way, and I think he's not riding a bad sprint."

In the end though, missing out on victory is a tough blow to take for the world champion. "This is a bit of a disappointment, I think," Van der Poel concludes. "I think we should have brought Olav better, but it was quite hectic."