Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) secured a second consecutive victory on stage 2 at the Tour of Britain into Wrexham. In a chaotic, slightly uphill final, Kooij capitalised off of a perfect lead-out from his teammates Edoardo Affini and Wout van Aert to take the win ahead of Danny van Poppel (Bora-hansgrohe) in second, with Van Aert finishing third.
“It was a short stage, and after yesterday, all the teams were looking at us to control the break. We used two guys to get them back. It was quite fast into the last three kilometres, slightly down and a bit twisty,” Kooij said in a post-race interview.
“We knew that going into the last kilometre was crucial, and we reconned it. We went on the slightly uphill part. Everyone was suffering, and I just had to go one last bit.”
The peloton shifted from the left side of the road to the right in the final, which resulted in a crash as one rider was squeezed into the roadside barrier cones.
“I think we went from left to right and squeezed together, and it’s a nasty crash. It’s never good to see such things, but we went from left to right and close to the barrier,” Kooij said.
Kooij continues to lead the overall classification ahead of Van Aert and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) as the race heads into stage 3 from Goole to Beverley on Tuesday.
“We will see,” Kooij said of his prospects of keeping the leader’s jersey. “The guys worked hard for two days in a row. It will be long if we keep going like this, but we will see what the tactics will be in the days to come.”
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