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.
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Spring Classics- including reporting, breaking news and analysis from the Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianchi and more. Find out more.
