Van Baarle propels Ineos's Classics rebirth

The British team showed at Paris-Roubaix that their Classics transformation is complete

- Vern Pitt

Dylan van Baarle’s win at Paris-Roubaix not only cemented the reputation of the lesser-heralded Dutchman but also established that of his British Ineos Grenadiers team as a bona fide Classics powerhouse, capping a week in which they also won Amstel Gold and Brabanste Pijl.

For van Baarle the result was quite a turnaround from the last time he arrived in Roubaix, just six months before. “I’ve never experienced being the first guy on the velodrome,” he said in his postvictory press conference.

“I know what it’s like to be the last guy, last year I was outside the time limit, but this year I had goosebumps.”

Team principal Dave Brailsford was there at the finish to embrace the Dutch rider who finally landed one of the few remaining races the British team were yet to win since their inception in 2010.

Ineos took the race by the scruff of the neck early on, and once van Baarle, who was second at the Tour of Flanders just two weeks before, had attacked on the four-star secteur of Camphin-en-Pévèle, there was no bringing him back.

“I’m still buzzing,” he said. “When I came into the velodrome it was amazing. I just checked to make sure I was alone, they didn’t flick me…. With the communication, you know the gap a little bit but you don’t get so much information. You don’t want to celebrate early.”