Visma | Lease a Bike opts for altitude training for Van Aert instead of riding with Kooij in Tirreno

Visma | Lease a Bike sent Olav Kooij to the Tirreno-Adriatico this week, giving the Dutch rider three sprint opportunities in seven days. On day 2, he came nowhere near winning the first opportunity due to an all-powerful Jonathan Milan. IDLProCycling.com visited the team bus after the stage to discuss the choice of a very small sprint train with team manager Maarten Wynants. This also included Wout van Aert and his altitude training. He will have to be at his best in the Giro.

If you look at the start list for the Tirreno-Adriatico, you realize that Kooij does not have many domestiques for his three sprint opportunities. Dan McLay - who came over from Arkéa-B&B Hotels this winter - is there, just like in Oman and UAE, but otherwise, Visma | Lease a Bike is lining up two GC contenders, Simon Yates and Cian Uijtdebroeks, two climbers, Attila Valter and Steven Kruijswijk, and one all-rounder, Dylan van Baarle. As a result, Kooij was alone with Mclay in Follonica.

Wynants saw that his team came up short in the run-up to the sprint. "If you come for the win, we are unsatisfied with fourth place. We knew it would be a chaotic sprint, with a crucial last turn at 300 meters. Milan rode it perfectly; you know he will go full throttle immediately. Olav was overtaken in the corner and came out fourth, so it came down to maintaining position. You must be on Milan's wheel to stand a chance in those last 300 meters."

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Kooij took it easy on day one with place 150 in the time trial

Did Kooij not have enough support from Visma | Lease a Bike in the sprints?

Visma | Lease a Bike took responsibility along the way in the chase of the leading group but only had McLay in the sprint. "It helps if the sprint train is a little longer if you have someone who can sacrifice himself in a sprint like that. Dan did well and dropped Olav off in the right place. However, Olav then found it just a little too difficult to get on Milan's wheel before he had to go around the outside of the bend. These are all efforts that make it just a little more challenging to sprint well."

"This was a good chance for Olav, but with Milan, you don't have much margin for error," continues Wynants, who is then confronted with the question of whether the sprint train for a race like Tirreno-Adriatico is not just too limited. "We must make choices and are here for a GC with Simon and Cian. We made those choices in Paris-Nice as well," he says, referring to Matteo Jorgenson and Jonas Vingegaard, with Edoardo Affini, Victor Campenaerts, Per Strand Hagenes, Bart Lemmen and Axel Zingle in service in France."

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Kooij won another stage in Oman, then with the young Niklas Behrens among them.

Kooij misses Van Aert and Behrens

Visma | Lease a Bike is not a team that prioritizes the sprint, so Kooij rarely uses more than two pure domestiques. Wynants also emphasizes that a 21-year-old German is currently injured and at home. "We knew beforehand that we had a very limited lead-out, with only Dan and then Olav, who has to tag along on other wheels. Attila and Dylan did very well until 4 kilometers from the finish, but ideally, you would have Niklas Behrens as well, but he is at home with a broken collarbone."

"Plus four riders training at altitude," the Belgian sports director adds. He refers to Tiesj Benoot and Wout van Aert, among others, who (in the company of Wilco Kelderman) are preparing for the classics on Tenerife. Van Aert will, therefore, be skipping this popular week of racing, as he did last year, and will be putting his efforts into altitude training. "Wout will be riding the Giro d'Italia, which will make a big difference. Let's be honest, and Dan will know that, too. He's doing what he can with his resources, but with Wout, we'll have more power later on."

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Van Aert drew after Opening Weekend on altitude training in Tenerife

Classics Van Aert (logically) favors the Tirreno

Van Aert's preference for Tenerife over Tirreno or Paris-Nice dates back to 2024, when the Belgian cycled the same program as in 2025. "Making choices is always a loss, but if he wins the Tour of Flanders later on... You never know the best choice in advance, but we feel he was top last year until he crashed in Dwars door Vlaanderen. That is the feeling that has stuck, why we are choosing this approach again," says Wynants.

On Mount Teide, Van Aert, Benoot, and Kelderman are cheering on their teammates, but Kooij is not getting anything out of it. He must hope Van Aert finds top form and can count for two in the Giro. McLay and Behrens are not there for the Tour of Italy, where a team is built around Yates. Finally, Wynants wonders if Van Aert would have made the difference on day 2 of the Tirreno. "He is a leader but was not the missing link in the sprint. Milan deserved to win, but if you ride this sprint with a corner like that ten times, you will likely have a different winner every time."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])     

Read also

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