One of the big absentees of the pro peloton in 2026 is set to finally surface, as Olav Kooij prepares to pull on the Decathlon CMA CGM jersey for the first time at the Boucles de la Mayenne later this month.
The Dutchman had established himself as one of the top sprinters in the world over the first five seasons of his career at Visma-Lease a Bike, and his signature for the up-and-coming Decathlon team was one of the biggest moves of last winter’s transfer window.
Now, though, Kooij has a season start date, with Decathlon CMA CGM director Sébastien Joly revealing that he will line up at the Boucles de la Mayenne stage race from May 28-31. He will also race the Baloise Belgium Tour from June 17-21, giving him nine days of racing ahead of the Tour de France, where his participation remains up in the air.
“Olav is doing really well,” Joly said on Eurosport France’s Bistrot Vélo show. “He is going to return to racing at the Boucles de la Mayenne, then he’ll do the Belgium Tour. In between, he’ll do a training camp to fine-tune his sprint and his turn of speed.
Will Kooij go to the Tour?
When Olav Kooij signed for Decathlon CMA CGM, he was effectively the first name on the teamsheet for the Tour de France. However, that doesn’t look so certain now.
Having found Grand Tour opportunities hard to come by at Visma – he did the Giro in 2024 and 2025 – Kooij was itching to make a Tour de France debut that was complicated by Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow jersey-hunting status within the team.
At Decathlon, he had seemingly found the perfect home, a team with increasingly big pockets and lacking a true leader for the Grand Tours, both in terms of general classification and sprints.
But Kooij’s illness woes have coincided with the meteoric rise of Paul Seixas, the 19-year-old prodigy who, it was recently confirmed, will make his Tour de France…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…