Kooij is having a good start to his season. The 23-year-old Dutchman won two stages in the Tour of Oman. After having to abandon the UAE Tour due to illness, he made a strong comeback in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with a second place and last week he sprinted to victory in the fourth stage in Tirreno-Adriatico under harsh weather conditions. “I am satisfied with my start to the season. After a good start in Oman I had a small setback, but I recovered strongly with my second place in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. The goal for Tirreno was to win a stage and I succeeded. That gives me a lot of confidence”, the rider says. 

At 289 kilometers, the Italian one-day race is the longest classic on the cycling calendar and was won by Wout van Aert in 2020. The climbs of the Cipressa and the Poggio in the finale always provide the biggest spectacle of the mostly flat race. “It is a very beautiful race that largely takes place along the Mediterranean coast. Milan-Sanremo is every year a battle between puncheurs and sprinters. That makes it fascinating and unpredictable”, sports director Wynants describes. 

“It could be a very tough race given the weather forecast for Saturday”, Wynants continues. “Tadej Pogacar's team will do everything they can to make the race as hard as possible. We have to be prepared for that. We are at the start with a strong team and with Olav we have a candidate who can compete for victory if it comes down to a sprint.”

Last year, Kooij made his debut in La Primavera and rode to a creditable fifteenth place in his first monument. According to the top sprinter, that motivates him for more. “At the start of your season you hope that the training work in the winter will pay off in good results. It gives confidence that I succeeded right away. Hopefully I can show myself again on Saturday. As a team we will have to do our best to position ourselves well at the most important moments in the race.”

Wynants adds: “Positioning is extremely important in a race like this. It makes a lot of difference whether you turn up the Cipressa and Poggio from the front or from the back. In Tirreno-Adriatico, Olav showed that he should be taken into account. Not only was his stage win superb, but his strong climbing work also stood out. If the race explode early, we still have two more cards to play with Ben Tulett and Axel Zingle.”