"When I got off my bike, I was emotional, sad" - Dylan van Baarle hopes to draw a thick line behind disastrous 2024 and "enjoy cycling again" in next season

There's not much good in Dylan van Baarle's 2024 campaign. Probably nothing went according to a plan. How could it with so many injuries? The gods of fortune didn't play a fair game with the 32-year-old Dutchman who missed most of spring, then Tour de France to make a solid impression at the Olympic Games to then get down again with a crash in the second stage of Vuelta a Espana. No wonder he calls it a year, aiming for a more satisfying 2025.

In the podcast In Koers of the Algemeen Dagblad, Van Baarle looks back on his fall and the difficult period that followed. "It all happened so quickly," says Van Baarle, who saw several riders fumbling with food bags in the feeding zone. "As a peloton, we reacted to that and calmly went to the left."

"We were going 15 to 20 kilometers per hour, but suddenly my front wheel slid away and I was on the ground. I probably hit a water bottle and landed on my right hip. I immediately felt that something was wrong. I have often broken or torn something in that area and I had the same symptoms. I couldn't get up myself and had to be pulled up by a spectator."

"Then when I was on the bike, I noticed that my right side wasn’t working at all. I was cycling aimlessly around." Van Baarle made a desperate attempt to reach the finish, but soon had to throw in the towel. He was then transported to the nearest hospital. There, Van Baarle discovered that he had two fractures in his pubic bone.

"When I got off my bike, I was emotional, sad. After that, I actually just couldn’t believe it. It took a few days for it all to sink in. I flew to the Netherlands so my mother could help me a bit. With buying food and things like that. The first few days I actually wanted to see or speak to as few people as possible and I spent most of my time indoors."

Van Baarle is now looking ahead to his return to the peloton. Although that will have to wait until 2025 as the Dutchman wants to draw a thick line after this season. "I need help for everything. If not from people around me, then from a few crutches. I also have a walker. That looks crazy, but it has already brought me a lot of joy. I think it is better to just put a line through this year and look to next season. I have to get fit, enjoy cycling again and then look to next season with renewed courage."