PARIS - Dutch debutant Olav Kooij won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday in a chaotic sprint finish sparked by a crash five kilometres from the line which scuppered several teams' hopes.
The 24-year-old beat German Max Kanter into second with Belgian Tim Merlier coming home in third as Norway's Torstein Traeen kept the race leader's yellow jersey despite being brought down in the crash.
"I had to wait until this day to get this first chance to sprint in the Tour and to win it is unbelievable," said Kooij.
With the sprinters primed for action on this flat fifth stage billed as a likely bunch finish, there was understandably some extra tension in the peloton in the run-in.
Several riders went down in the spill with just over 5km to ride, with Dutchman Alex Molenaar seemingly the worst affected.
However, dozens of riders were slowed up by the crash and found themselves desperately trying to chase down a reduced peloton charging towards the finish line at Pau on another sweltering day in the southwest of France.
Sprinters such as Jasper Philipsen lost key lead-out team-mates like Mathieu van der Poel and it led to a disorganised run to the finish line with no teams able to tee up their fast men as they would have wanted to.
Co-captain of the Decathlon team alongside Paul Seixas, Kooij emerged from the chaos with an irresistible surge to the line to accomplish his pre-tour aim to "win at least one sprint stage".
"It was quite an easy day until the final, so then you know it will be hectic in this first sprint of the Tour," said Kooij.
"Everyone is still really eager and I just managed to find my way.
"I did it on my own in the end and I found the right wheel and I just wanted to have a chance to sprint today.
"When I saw the line I just went as hard as I could."
The Dutchman had never ridden at the Tour before as his previous team, Visma-Lease a Bike, did not bring a sprinter to the race as they concentrated solely on their overall contender Jonas Vingegaard.
And he got off to a poor start with new team Decathlon CMA CGM as he battled a long illness at the beginning of the year.
- AFP