Cyclingflash
Olav Kooij beats Mads Pedersen for second stage win in Boucles de la Mayenne, Cosnefroy overall winner

Olav Kooij beats Mads Pedersen for second stage win in Boucles de la Mayenne, Cosnefroy overall winner

Olav Kooij is completely back. The Dutchman won the final stage of the Boucles de la Mayenne after already taking the first stage. He beat Mads Pedersen in a mass sprint. The overall victory went to Benoît Cosnefroy, who never saw his leader’s jersey come under threat on the last day.

The day after Benoît Cosnefroy seized control in the queen stage, there was a relatively flat stage from Cossé-le-Vivien to Laval. The expectation was a sprint finish after 148 kilometers. Olav Kooij went for his second win, but with rivals like Matthew Brennan and Mads Pedersen, the competition was tough.

The break of the day formed after about twenty kilometers of racing. Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) was the biggest name in the quartet, which also included Mattias Schwarzbacher (EF Education-EasyPost), Edoardo Zamperini (Cofidis), and Pierre Thierry (TotalEnergies). The four gained a maximum lead of two and a half minutes.

Equipment trouble for Hayter
However, the gap started to shrink quickly. The sprinters' teams - Visma | Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, and Decathlon CMA CGM - took the lead in the peloton. At one point, the attackers had only a twenty-second advantage, but then they eased off the pace in the peloton again. The breakaway’s lead then hovered around the minute for a long time.

[caption id="attachment_1286304" align="alignnone" width="1067"] photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos

Up front, they lost Hayter with forty kilometers to go, who was caught (and left behind) by the peloton after a bike change. The three remaining escapees kept fighting hard, but they were caught with four kilometers to go. We were heading for a ‘regular’ sprint finish.

Kooij takes his second, Cosnefroy overall winner
Lidl-Trek took the initiative in the finale. Søren Kragh Andersen perfectly led out Mads Pedersen and dropped him well into the final straight. However, the Dane was passed by Olav Kooij, who ultimately won convincingly. Pedersen was second, John Degenkolb third. Alongside Kooij, two other Dutchmen finished in the top five: Maikel Zijlaard (fourth) and Marijn van den Berg (fifth).

For Kooij, it was his second stage win in the Boucles de la Mayenne, having previously won the first road stage. A great confidence boost for the Dutchman, as this week was only his first race of 2026. The sprinter, who switched last winter from Visma | Lease a Bike to Decathlon CMA CGM, missed the entire spring due to a stubborn virus. Now he is fully back.

There were no major changes at the top of the general classification. Benoît Cosnefroy was thus crowned the overall winner.