Dutchman’s win the cherry on the cake of Ineos Grenadiers’ dazzling spring Classics campaign.
If there has been one stand-out team of the 2022 spring Classics season, then Ineos Grenadiers surely takes the title, having followed their victories at Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl with the one to crown them all, Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.
The title is the first of Paris-Roubaix’s famous cobblestone trophies claimed by the British squad since their foundation in 2010, with Dutchman Dylan van Baarle hoisting the famous prize aloft on the podium Sunday at the Vélodrome André Pétrieux.
Van Baarle, now a veteran of eight editions of the race, had never stepped on the podium of a Monument before, but can now add the biggest Classic of them all to a palmarès boosted two weeks ago by a second place at the Tour of Flanders.
The 29-year-old’s 2021 outing on the cobbles of northern France had ended with him finishing among the last ten riders, who made their way over the line outside the time limit at the wet race last October. His win this time out marks an extraordinary turnaround between two editions of the same race.