Team Jumbo-Visma’s Dylan van Baarle has been ruled out of Tour of Flanders due to ‘physical problems’
Team Jumbo-Visma will be without Dylan van Baarle for the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
The 30-year-old is “struggling with physical problems, and has been unable to get fit in time,” a team statement confirmed on Thursday.
Van Baarle came second in the Tour of Flanders last year, but was excluded from Jumbo-Visma’s lineup for Sunday’s race following a crash at the E3 Saxo Classic last Friday.
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He was forced to miss Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen in the wake of the incident and hoped to return on Sunday, but the event will come too soon.
Not only were the injuries sustained from the crash a factor in his absence, but illness is another issue specified by team director Maarten Wynants.
“When you have to recover from a hard crash it takes energy out of the body then it costs you through illness later on. That’s just my opinion.”
Van Baarle – who kicked off Jumbo-Visma’s golden 2023 cobbled Classics campaign at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last month – favours the longer Classics like Sunday’s race, according to team leader Wout van Aert.
“Dylan not being in the selection on Sunday is a loss for the team,” Van Aert said. “It’s unfortunate, but his health comes first.
“He is consistently one of the better riders in the longer Classics, such as the Tour of Flanders. Now it is up to us to compensate for his absence as best we can.
“We have demonstrated we can do that over the past few weeks. We have a strong selection with several riders who can contend for victory. I am confident that we can do the same on Sunday.”
Van Baarle crashed with Florian Senechal (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) at the entrance to the Stationsberg cobbled sector with 58 kilometres to go in the E3 Saxo Classic.
Jumbo-Visma have confirmed their line-up, with Van Aert racing alongside Nathan Van Hooydonck, Tiesj Benoot, Tosh Van der Sande, Christophe Laporte, Tim van Dijke and Edoardo Affini for Sunday’s one-day race.
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