2022 Paris-Roubaix winner Dylan van Baarle non-starter in 2024 race
Dutch National Champion DNS major blow to Roubaix prospects for Visma-Lease A Bike
Visma-Lease A Bike’s rollercoaster Classic season continued apace on Sunday morning with the announcement that Dylan van Baarle, the 2022 winner, was a DNS.
The team used social media to confirm that the 31-year-old Dutch National Champion would not be racing because of sickness.
Van Baarle’s non-participation is a significant blow to Visma-Lease A Bike’s Classics campaign, which suffered a major setback in Dwars Door Vlaanderen when Wout van Aert was unlucky enough to crash and abandon with major injuries.
American Matteo Jorgenson stepped up to the breach in that race in fine style, claiming the win, but was then confirmed as being not able to race in Paris-Roubaix..
Jorgenson’s absence was again at least partly boosted by news of the return of French Classics champion and former Gent-Wevelgem winner Christophe Laporte to their Roubaix ranks.
But on Sunday morning the rollercoaster continued for Visma with the last-minute exit of Van Baarle from their line-up.
Van Baarle himself had already missed Dwars door Vlaanderen because of illness, but then in the Tour of Flanders found himself on the backfoot after suffering in the cold. While keenly anticipating a chance to race Paris-Roubaix, finally he was a DNS.
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.