Olav Kooij, the prolific Dutch sprinter currently under contract with Visma-Lease a Bike, looks set to be signed by Sam Bennett’s team, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.
While Kooij has 39 UCI wins on his palmares at the age of 23 years, including three this year, he has yet to make a major breakthrough in Grand Tours.
His team mates Wout van Aert and two-time Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard, are such clear leaders that Kooij has only been selected for one Grand Tour so far in his career.
Facing little prospect of a start in the Tour in the years ahead, and scant lead-out resources if he ever was picked, Kooij is expected to move on from the Dutch super-team, with French squad Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale now looking set to sign him.
Kooij has started just one Grand Tour in his four years with his current team, getting the nod for last year’s Giro, where he won a stage, and where the team had no real general classification plan to get behind. The Dutch sprinter will ride the Giro again this year, starting next weekend.
He will face Ireland’s Bennett, who goes into the race also hunting sprint stage wins to add to the three Giro stage victories he took back in 2018. Kooij’s contract with Visma-Lease a Bike is due to expire at the end of this year, with Bennett’s two-year deal also due to run its course at the end of 2025.
If Kooij does sign for the French team, it is unclear if Bennett (34) would remain on or if he would look for a berth at a rival squad.
Dutch publication, Wielerflits, has linked Kooij with a move to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, suggesting the contract is a done deal. It added his current team mate at Visma Lease a Bike, Tiesj Benoot (31), is also likely to make the move to the French team.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale has enjoyed a surge in success in the last couple of seasons and with the addition of major sports retailer, Decathlon, as title sponsor it now has the funding required to sign riders who demand multi million Euro contracts.
