05/04/2022

Dylan van Baarle: "I was always thinking to be ahead of the race"

Dylan van Baarle has had a strong classics campaign last year, winning Dwars door Vlaanderen and later in the year finishing second at the World championships. Having built on that, he's been rather absent in the classics campaign but flew yesterday to a second place on the Tour des Flandres.

INEOS came with a strong lineup to Flandres, with van Baarle having Tom Pidcock, Jhonatan Narváez and Ben Turner as strong cards to race tactical with. The Dutch rouleur is no stranger to the top-end of racing in the classics and made his move in perfect timing after the Paterberg, building a gap alongside Fred Wright which saw them in front after Tadej Pogacar's attack in the peloton over the Koppenberg.

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"I was always thinking to be ahead of the race, and that they’d have to chase me. With Tom, Ben and Jhony Narvaez in the group behind, it’s always better if there is someone up the road, and they can save the legs a little bit. I just had to wait for the better guys to attack, and in this case it was Mathieu and Tadej," van Baarle added.

Although having been dropped at the Oude Kwaremont by the Pogacar and van der Poel duo, he and Madouas came back to the head of the race in the final kilometer where van Baarle managed to sprint into second place: "Vice world champion and vice runner up in Flanders. It’s not bad!"

Video: Tadej Pogacar curses at Dylan van Baarle after Flandres finale

"I wasn’t expecting anymore to sprint for the victory, that’s for sure. I was confident in the sprint after 270km – I’m not super quick but at least I don’t lose too much power. So I was confident to sprint for third place but then all of a sudden we were sprinting for the victory," van Baarle said after the finish.

"It went so fast so you had to decide really quick. In the end Mathieu was too quick," he concluded. Van Baarle will be at the start of Paris-Roubaix in two weeks where he will have another opportunity to have a career-defining win, and his consistency over the last few seasons has earned him a spot as one of the main favourites for the third monument of the year.