A Dylan van Baarle victory on Sunday in the men's elite road race at the Glasgow World Championships wouldn't be a total surprise. Having reconned the course however, the Dutchman feels his teammate Mathieu van der Poel may be better suited.
"This is more extreme than Leuven," says the 31-year-old in a pre-race interview with IDLProCycling, referencing the 2021 World Championships where van Baarle finished second behind Julian Alaphilippe. "Both in terms of the number of turns and altitude changes, and there are no cobblestones. The true cyclocross riders do have an advantage, especially with all those turns."
Whilst van Baarle does have some minor cyclocross experience, finishing 8th at the junior Dutch championships in 2010, it's his teammate, van der Poel, a five-time cyclocross world champion, who seemingly looks like the Netherlands' best hope of taking the Rainbow Jersey.
"Mathieu and I have a good understanding, even though we don't know each other very well", he says. "Mathieu also loves to race and loves a tough race, that's the same for me. I've also shared a room with him a few times and we just clicked super well, you just have some guys like that. You only need a mere glance at each other and you know what's up."
"I've always had that underdog role, but I don't mind at all. I just need to try and capitalize on that. I don't have the explosiveness of Mathieu, but on a good day I can trust that anything is possible. Let's hope for that," he concludes before picking out the names he things are most likely to take the win.
"You could mention Wout van Aert or Mathieu, but okay. I've experienced Christophe Laporte on training camps and now in the Dauphiné and Tour, he's definitely one of the favourites for me. I expect him to be right up there where all the action is."
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