Tour of Britain stage 1: Olav Kooij wins sprint as Jumbo-Visma go 1-2

Olav Kooij won the opening stage of the Tour of Britain as his Jumbo-Visma team pioneered the front of the peloton into the closing kilometre. Behind Kooij it was teammate Wout van Aert who finished second, with Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) rounding out the podium in third.

Stage 1 of this year’s Tour of Britain started in Altrincham and finished 161km later in Manchester. The route contained a few hills along the way but nothing that would prevent the sprinters from making it to the finish.

The break of the day got away early and contained Harry Tanfield (TDT-Unibet), Jack Rootkin-Gray and Zeb Kyffin (Saint Piran), Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X) and James Fouché (Bolton Equities Black Spoke). They were never allowed too much of a lead as Jumbo-Visma controlled the pace for their sprinter Kooij as well as their favourite for the overall GC, Van Aert. Tanfield and Fouché took the mountain points of the day between them and soon dropped back to the peloton, leaving the remaining three out front.

Those three managed to keep their lead for a long time and it was only in the last few kilometres that they were eventually caught by the peloton who were expecting a sprint. At the finish, Jumbo-Visma played it brilliantly with Kooij taking the win and teammate Wout van Aert placing second behind him. Bennett finished on the podium with the best British rider being Ethan Vernon (Soudal Quick-Step) in fifth.

"The whole team did a great effort," said Kooij after the finish. "We had to pull quite hard to bring back the break to sprint for the win. The guys still managed to get me and Wout out first and second through the corner and then I had to just go the line. And to take a win where everyone is so much involved makes it even sweeter.”