Olav Kooij wins Stage 1 of the 2025 Tour of Britain in Southwold

Mathew Mitchell

Published on September 2, 2025
in Men's Cycling

Olav Kooij confirmed his status as one of the most consistent sprinters in the peloton by powering to victory on stage 1 of the 2025 Tour of Britain. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider, who famously won four stages in succession at this race in 2023, opened his account in Southwold by outsprinting Tord Gudmestad of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Hugo Hofstetter of Israel-Premier Tech. The result also handed Kooij the first leader’s jersey of this year’s six-day race.

How the stage unfolded

The 161.4km opener rolled out from Woodbridge under heavy skies, heading north through Suffolk to finish on the seafront in Southwold. Almost immediately a breakaway of four riders went clear: Josh Golliker of EF Education-Aevolo, Milan Lanhove and Victor Vercouillie of Team Flanders-Baloise, and Diego Uriarte of Kern Pharma. Their lead quickly stretched beyond two minutes, the peloton content to let them sweep up the early prizes. Lanhove proved the most active, taking the day’s only categorised climb at Mill Hill to earn the mountains jersey for stage 2, and also winning the intermediate sprint at Halesworth.

The weather played its part, with steady rain making conditions tricky before the skies cleared later in the stage. The quartet worked well together, but their gap gradually narrowed as Visma | Lease a Bike, Uno-X Mobility and Picnic PostNL began to chase. With under 40km to race, the advantage had dropped under one minute, and by the final 6km the catch was inevitable. Vercouillie was the last man standing, holding out bravely before being swept up just outside the town.

The pace increased sharply on the narrow Suffolk lanes leading into Southwold, with Uno-X, Lotto and Ineos Grenadiers jostling for control, but Visma kept Kooij in perfect position behind teammates Matthew Brennan and another lead-out rider. Alberto Dainese of Tudor Pro Cycling tried to spoil the script with a long sprint on the slight rise towards the finish, but he faded under the headwind. Gudmestad then surged powerfully from sixth wheel and looked close to stealing the win, yet Kooij timed his acceleration to perfection, blasting past in the final metres to take his eighth win of the season.

The victory not only delivered Kooij the first leader’s jersey but also continued his remarkable record at the Tour of Britain, where he now counts five stage wins. Gudmestad sits second overall at four seconds, with Hofstetter third at five seconds. British interest centred on Sam Watson of Ineos Grenadiers, who placed sixth, while his teammate Geraint Thomas safely finished his opening day in what is his final professional race, despite suffering a puncture in the closing kilometres.

The peloton now remains in Suffolk for stage 2, a 174km route around Stowmarket that again looks set to favour the sprinters.