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Home favourite Wout van Aert and his Jumbo-Visma squad will have to do without Dylan van Baarle at Sunday’s Tour of Flanders after the team did not include him in their definitive line-up.
The reigning Paris-Roubaix champion and runner-up in Flanders last spring, Van Baarle crashed hard at the E3 Saxo Classic last Friday and was forced to miss Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen as a result.
The 30-year-old, who kicked off Jumbo-Visma’s golden 2023 cobbled Classics campaign at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last month, would have been a key lieutenant for Van Aert at Sunday’s race as well as a contender in his own right. However, when Jumbo-Visma named their Flanders squad on Thursday afternoon, he was not in their number.
Van Baarle went down at the entrance to the Stationsberg cobbled sector with 58km to go at the E3 Saxo Classic, falling along with Florian Sénéchal (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) just as Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) launched the attacking at the front of the race.
But despite Van Baarle getting back on the bike and even putting in a 184km training ride around Flanders on Sunday, his team have judged him to be not yet fully fit to race.
“The injuries are not too bad,” Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Grischa Niermann told AD earlier this week. “Dylan is even fully training again, but our absolute goal is to win the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.”
Van Aert leads the Dutch team at Flanders, with Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Christophe Laporte, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne winner Tiesj Benoot, Edoardo Affini, Tosh van der Sande, Nathan Van Hooydonck, and Tim van Dijke filling out the Jumbo-Visma squad.
🇧🇪 #RVV23 We can’t wait for Sunday!💥 This is our team for the Ronde van Vlaanderen. pic.twitter.com/KB1UZb6dlWMarch 30, 2023
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