One last Grand Tour for Dylan van Baarle on behalf of Visma | LaB: "It didn't turn out as we had hoped"

“One, two, and three for us again!” the Dutchman laughs to NOS about the upcoming Vuelta. “No, I have no ambition to achieve a result myself. That's not why I'm coming to the Vuelta. We have a strong team at the start and want to go for the overall victory, the highest possible achievement,” he says in a more serious tone.

The Dutchman returned to racing last week after only competing in the Dutch National Championships following the Giro d'Italia. It was not a relaxing time, as his girlfriend, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, recently won the Tour de France. Van Baarle traveled to France to wait for his girlfriend at the finish of the final stage. “Suddenly, the madness of the Tour was over for her, which was a crazy moment for her.”

“We basically spent the whole day together,” the Dutchman continues. “If we weren't on our bikes, we went for a walk or out for dinner: just the usual things. Slowly, it hit me what she had achieved.” The Frenchwoman brilliantly won the Tour after returning to the road this year following years of absence.

The focus then shifted back to the Vuelta, which will be the last Grand Tour for Van Baarle in the service of Visma | Lease a Bike. This winter, the Dutchman will make the switch to Soudal Quick-Step, and he has his reasons. “I was perhaps ready for a new challenge, and I am really looking forward to taking it on. At Quick-Step, they really want to focus on the classics again. That was the deciding factor. Of course, it is also a real classics team by origin, and it will be great to be part of that soon,” he explains.

This brings an end to his adventure with the Killer Bees. “It didn't turn out the way we had hoped, no,” the Dutchman concludes honestly. “Due to various circumstances. Due to a lot of injuries that I had to recover from. In that respect, it hasn't been my best three years. But I have to try to put that behind me and go into this Vuelta with good energy.”

“It was mentally tough,” Van Baarle says of the many fractures he has suffered in recent years. "Three such injuries in a row are just too much. You find yourself in the same boat again. Everyone around you is getting better at the start of the season, while you're falling behind. That was the hardest part. I think I underestimated the impact those injuries had on my condition."

Anyway, he was in good shape last week in the Tour of Denmark, with a top-10 finish on day four and eleventh place overall. So Van Baarle is feeling optimistic as he heads to the start in Turin this Saturday. “I'm going to support those guys, Jonas, Sepp, and Matteo, as best I can once again. If I can do that, I'll be delighted,” he says with optimism.