Tour de France: Olav Kooi shines on debut with stage 5 victory in Pau

Olav Koy (Decathlon CMA CGM) was the fastest finisher in the first sprint stage of the 2026 Tour de France at Pau, running home from a much-diminished field of fastmen to take the stage win on his debut.

The Dutchman beat Max Kanter to the line after the German team XDS-Astana controlled the lead in the final kilometre, with Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) completing the podium in third place.

The trio were part of a group of 20 leading the way as the sprint began, with most of the peloton falling back to stay safe as the sprinters battled it out.

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Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Premier Tech controlled the race for most of the 158.3 km stage, but their sprinters were without teammates in the final kilometer and several QuickStep competitors were involved in a crash with 5.5 km to go.

Instead, it was XDS-Astana who were in the lead, with Aaron Gate and Mike Theunissen looking to launch Kanter after doing so well in the afternoon’s intermediate sprint.

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However, Koij had other ideas. The 24-year-old shared Kanter’s wheel with Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarché) before charging ahead to take the lead on the final straight. No one else could match his closing pace and so he won easily as Artz finished fourth ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Biniam Girmay (NSN) and the green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).

Olav Kooi from the Decathlon CMA CGM team celebrates the finish (Image credit: Getty Images)

“After a few tough days here we had to wait until now to get our first chance to sprint in the Tour and to win straight away is incredible,” Koij said after the stage.

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“It means quite a lot. I think overall I’ve had a pretty rough spring and I think just getting back to that level and continuing to believe in yourself and a few people who believe in you is all you need.

“I think being here with the support of the team today was all I could have asked for and they did a great job, but it was quite hectic. It was a pretty easy day leading up to the final, so you know it’s going to be hectic. And in this first sprint of the Tour, everyone is still very impatient.

“I ended up finding my way on my own, but I found the right wheel and I just wanted to be able to make a run today and when I saw the line I just went as hard as I could.”

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The first sprint stage of the Tour saw no change at the top of the GC standings, with race leader Thorstein Thraen (Uno-X Mobility) and the main rivals finishing 14 seconds behind the leading sprint group in the peloton.

Personal show at 144 km.

Baptiste Weistroffer of Lotto-Intermarché during his solo trip to the front (Image credit: Getty Images)

The first full sprint stage of the Tour de France saw riders tackle a flat 158.3km course from Lannemezan to Pau, with just one hill – the third category Côte de Baley (1km at 8.8%) – 25.6km from the finish.

After Mads Pedersen’s triumph in Foix on Tuesday, this stage will always be largely silent for the sprint teams before the final kilometers.

The riders clearly thought so too, as there was no fight in the breakaway that day. Instead, Baptiste Weistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) jumped out of the peloton on his own in the first kilometer of the stage.

The 26-year-old Frenchman, who won the breakaway at the Tour of Oman earlier this year, had no chance of repeating his feat here.

Alpecin-Premier Tech will take on the pursuit of the lone racer (Image credit: Getty Images)

Back in the peloton, it was Uno-X Mobility who took the job of establishing the rhythm early in the day before Alpecin-Premier Tech took control. Weistroffer’s lead at his peak was four minutes, but it remained around the three-minute mark for most of the stage.

Before the day’s only intermediate sprint at Vic-en-Bigorre, 45km from the finish, there wasn’t much to talk about. Weistroffer, with 2:35 remaining in the distance, scored a maximum of 25 points there.

Behind him, XDS-Astana was ahead of Kanter, who finished second with 20 points, while Pedersen was third with 16 points, ahead of Girmay with 14 and Philipsen with 12.

Soudal-QuickStep, working for their sprinter Merlier, gave Alpecin-Premier Tech some breathing space after the sprint, the Belgian team leading the peloton to the finish and cutting Weisttroffer’s lead to the minute mark with 30km to go.

The Frenchman continued to lead the Côte des Bales, with Casper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Valentin Pare-Paintre (Soudal-Quickstep) attacking from the peloton behind him.

The trio’s movement briefly enlivened the scene, but they returned with 17.5km to go while Weistroffer continued to lead the peloton by just 10 seconds, now led by Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal-QuickStep.

Kofidis was among the other teams working on the front lines in the fight against Poe as Uno-X Mobility also became involved. 5.5 km from the line, a peloton collision killed many riders.

There were no major players in the sprint or world standings in the fall, although Michael Matthews (Jaco-AlUla) and several of Tim Merlier’s top players were in the running.

Torstein Train from the Uno-X Mobility team, wearing the yellow overall leader’s jersey, crosses the finish line safely. (Image credit: Getty Images)

It was Uno-X Mobility that led the shortened peloton into the final kilometers, while a split in the peloton saw their player Thorstein Trinh and most of the race not in the sprint fall back.

XDS-Astana and Cofidis took the lead in the final kilometer, with the Kazakh team leading the finishing sprint from a much reduced field of only around 20 riders.

However, they did not repeat this feat with Koij, who did not run the intermediate sprint, but instead saved himself for the finish in style.

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