The rider

Olav Kooij arrives at Decathlon CMA CGM as the symbol of the team's expensive new ambition. For years at Visma-Lease a Bike, he looked ready for a Tour de France sprint campaign but was trapped behind the priorities of a yellow-jersey superteam. Decathlon did not sign him to wait. They signed him to lead, to chase stages, and to make the green jersey a public target from the opening week. His spring virus complicated the ramp, but wins at the Boucles de la Mayenne and Baloise Belgium Tour restored the feeling of momentum.

Kooij's sprinting is not only about peak speed. He is compact, technically neat and unusually calm for a young finisher, able to surf a chaotic finale without seeming to lose the wheel he wants. The team around him reflects that. Hoole supplies the big diesel horsepower, Bol offers the last-kilometre launch experience, and Benoot gives the train a road captain who understands where sprint stress overlaps with GC danger. Decathlon have built a specific machine rather than asking Kooij to improvise alone.

The green jersey goal is ambitious because the Tour points competition punishes one-dimensional sprinters. Kooij must survive hard days, collect intermediate points, and keep showing up when the third week has stripped freshness from everyone. But his move was made for this test. He left a team where July opportunities were scarce and joined one willing to measure itself by his speed. Barcelona is not just his Tour debut as a sprinter. It is the first referendum on Decathlon's new ceiling.