"Olympics won't be a problem" - Dylan van Baarle convinced his injury won't impact his start at Olympic Games in Paris

Dylan van Baarle is confident that he can go to the Olympic Games in good shape despite his crash at Critérium du Dauphiné. He and his teammate Steven Kruijswijk were the main victims. Both had to give up on starting at the Tour de France next week as a consequence.

"I had moved forward and then they fell in front of me," Van Baarle tells his story about the fall in AD podcast In Koers. "I noticed that the road was slippery and I tried to slow down as much as possible. Then I made the decision not to fall on the asphalt, but to steer into the verge, hoping for a good outcome. Unfortunately I still had too much speed and landed on my shoulder. When Michele Gazzoli reached out his hand to help me up, I thought: 'oh, I think it's really not good.' Then the rollercoaster begins."

In the evening, the consequences of Van Baarle's fall really started to sink in. "At first you have the hope that you can still reach the Tour, but when I lay in my bed, I realized that it was going to be very difficult. During the operation it also turned out to be more complex than they initially thought. My collarbone was in half and the first part of the fracture was splintered. I now have an eleven centimeter plate in my collarbone."

Yet the Visma | Lease a Bike rider, who will have to sit out the Tour, is fighting towards the Olympic Games. There according to original plans, he would carry the Dutch colors with Mathieu van der Poel and Daan Hoole. "I'm going to Tignes for another three weeks. The Olympics won't be a problem. I am confident that I will be at the start there with very good form. I don't know whether I will be better prepared than if I had ridden the Tour, but I will certainly be at the start very fresh."