Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) came from nowhere to win a messy sprint on stage 2 of the Renewi Tour, beating Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) to the line in Ardooie after a breathless day of echelon racing.
Visma-Lease a Bike led for much of the final 5km and looked to have the perfect lead-out set up, but Kooij dropped back for the final 2km, perhaps knowing it was too early with only Christophe Laporte left to guide him.
How it unfolded
Almost the entirety of stage 2 at the Renewi Tour saw a breathless race from flag to flag heading away from the Belgian coastline, with the 172km from Blankenberge to Ardooie being covered at breakneck speeds due to almost four hours of flat-out echelon racing.
Minor breakaway attempts were made,…
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