Olav Kooij on the way to sprint victory on stage 1 of the Tour of Oman(Image credit: Getty Images)
Olav Kooij delivered Visma-Lease a Bike a first victory in 2025 as the Dutch sprinter strode to a fast opening sprint win in Bimmah Sink Hole in the opening stage of the 2025 Tour of Oman.
In a sprint which was opened up by Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and fought between team sprint trains from Movistar, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Visma-Lease a Bike, Kooij found himself on the Colombian’s wheel in the final 300m. He took advantage of his early move to sprint to victory ahead of Pavel Bittner in second place and Erlend Blikra in third.
The flat sprint stage unfolded in a predictable manner on the wider windy plains from Bushar to Bimmah Sink Hole.
A breakaway formed early in the stage, which contained teammates Said Alrahbi and Mohammed Al-Wahibi (Oman National Team), Rodrigo Álvarez (Burgos Burpellet), Kane Richards (Roojai Insurance).
The break stretched to a comfortable lead of over 3 minutes at 100km remaining, which spread out further to 3:15 with 85km to go.
However, as the race approached the final 50km, the pressure from the sprint teams began to mount with the four escapees holding barely 1:30 with 50m remaining.
Visma-Lease a BIke were conspicuous on the front of the peloton, pushing in support of sprinter and likely stage favourite Olav Kooij.
The breakaway fragmented and was caught with 25km to go as sprint teams began to work into formation as the peloton moved up the coast of the Sea of Oman toward the finish in Bimmah Sink Hole.