Then a little crack in Jumbo-Visma’s armor now that Dylan van Baarle has to fit into Dwars door Vlaanderen: ‘It’s not perfect’

Then a small crack in Jumbo-Visma’s armor. The Dutch team is dominating the Flemish action this year with victories at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne, E3 and Gent-Wevelgem. On paper, they also go to the Tour of Flanders with the strongest block on Sunday. Only there is a small question mark after the name of substitute captain Dylan van Parlee. He fell at the E3 prize on Friday and had to give up after 150km of competition. It was expected that he would not start in Gent-Wevelgem, but he also misses Dwars door Vlaanderen, which indicates he has suffered some damage.

Insufficient recovery after a fall

What exactly is the problem, they’d rather leave it in the middle at Jumbo-Visma. “Nowadays we are no longer allowed to just say that and we will not do that,” sporting director Merrin Zeman said. “He’s not perfect. Dylan fell down and hasn’t recovered enough to start tomorrow. He still has a lot of trouble driving over the gravel. We’re counting on him to start the Tour of Flanders on Sunday and that he’ll be good, but it’s not the perfect Tour. I’m not going to deny it.”

Van Barley – who complained of a sore hip and knee after E3 – seemed mainly to want to prevent his injuries from becoming more serious, because the Paris-Roubaix winner was still training on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday even more than 180 km. “He also trains on Wednesdays,” says Ziman. “He did a little less than expected. He also couldn’t finish the race on Friday, so it’s not quite perfect, but we have to make do with it. We want to give him a little extra chance to recover. Will he be ready in a few days? There is of course always the chance that he He won’t make it to Ronde, but if you ask me now, he’ll be riding on Sunday.”

Laporte does at Dwars door Vlaanderen

Christophe Laporte will start at Roeselare on Wednesday. The Frenchman, who was able to add Ghent-Wevelgem to his Sunday rest, is now after E3 in his third race in six days in the four most beautiful days of Flanders. “This has to do with the fact that Christophe had to drop out sick for Paris-Nice,” says Zeman. “He competed hard in competitions and by taking Dwars voor Vlaanderen he should be able to take a small step on terms.”