Visma-Lease a Bicycle team rider Kooij started his effort 300 meters from the line. With three passes over Wasserberg, an 800-meter wall with an average gradient of 8.4%, the sprinters were unable to hold Alex Aranbur’s wheel on the second climb of this challenge, and the Spanish champion quickly took the lead of the peloton 20 miles into the finish. However, it was the peloton that led Aranbur by ten kilometers to encourage a mass sprint, dominated by Kooij, who scored his eighth in Hamburg this season, the 36th of his career.
“I wasn’t sure about my form after I fell a few days ago. But in the end everything went well. The race was very intense. The key was placement,” said Kooij, 22. The stage was also marked by multiple falls involving several disillusioned favorites (Australia’s Caleb Evan, Belgium’s Tim Merlier and Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria).