Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team, Netherlands) won the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro (Germany) on 3 October, in the sprint of a group of 23 riders, in 4h08’31”. Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Belgium) was second, Frits Biesterbos (Team Picnic Postnl, Netherlands) third.
The race
The Münsterland Giro started in Borken and finished in Münster, in the castle square. On the eve of the race the organisers were expecting a sprint, and in Münster sprints are the rule: since 2006 there have been five races that did not end in a bunch sprint. It was also the twentieth edition.
After several failed attempts, the right break formed in the afternoon, made up of six men: Kelland O’Brien, Noé Ury, Samuele Zoccarato, Ward Vanhoof, Samuel Leroux and Arno Wallenborn. The gap reached about two minutes, then began to fall. Ury lost contact and the escapees were down to five.
Wallenborn was the most active on the climbs: he won four of the five mountain sprints and the mountains classification. Vanhoof took the points classification.
Behind, the work fell to the sprinters’ teams. With 26 kilometres to go the five still had 35”. Alpecin-Premier Tech led the chase, with Soudal Quick-Step alongside. A mechanical problem stopped Jasper Philipsen, winner in 2024 and 2025 and chasing a third consecutive title: the Belgian got back to the bunch, but his race ended there. The gap fell to 7” and shortly afterwards the peloton caught the last escapees.
The final attacks, around twenty kilometres from the finish, did not change the script. A thousand metres from the line the bunch was still together and Decathlon CMA CGM launched the sprint for their fast man.
Kooij went and nobody caught him again: he beat Meeus and Biesterbos on the straight in Münster. For the Dutchman it is a second win in the race, after the one in 2022, and it came in an autumn when the strongest sprinters were all on the start line.
In the same sprint Max Walscheid, a 33-year-old German, ended his professional career. He finished twelfth, after fading in the final metres. He had won here in 2018. He stays at Lidl-Trek, in the team’s “Performance Centre”.
The first of the Italians is Davide Persico, MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort, 21st in the same time as the winner. 147 riders finished out of 151 starters.
How they finished
The top ten
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olav Kooij | Decathlon CMA CGM Team | 4h08’31” |
| 2 | Jordi Meeus | Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe | s.t. |
| 3 | Frits Biesterbos | Team Picnic Postnl | s.t. |
| 4 | Anthony Turgis | Totalenergies | s.t. |
| 5 | Hugo Hofstetter | NSN Cycling Team | s.t. |
| 6 | Florian Dauphin | Totalenergies | s.t. |
| 7 | Milan Fretin | Cofidis | s.t. |
| 8 | Jasper Philipsen | Alpecin-Premier Tech | s.t. |
| 9 | Søren Wærenskjold | Uno-X Mobility | s.t. |
| 10 | Arvid De Kleijn | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | s.t. |
The race in numbers
- Selection index
- 0 out of 100 Of 147 finishers: 87 within 30 seconds of the winner, 128 within 2 minutes, all within 10 minutes (him included). It runs from 0, a bunch sprint, to 98, a solo finish.
News written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- Results and times: UCI, official results.
- Photo: Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
