Van Baarle ready to defend Tour of Britain title
Surprise 2014 winner Dylan van Baarle raised his profile by being crowned Tour of Britain champion and returns to defend his title.
Dylan van Baarle slipped under the radar to win the Tour of Britain last year but the Dutchman sees this year's race as more of an opportunity to gear up for the UCI Road World Championships in America later this month.
Van Baarle made a name for himself when he was crowned Tour of Britain champion 12 months ago in his first year as a professional.
The 23-year-old Cannondale-Garmin rider will be among the contenders when this year's Tour of Britain starts in Wales for the first time in the history of the modern race on Sunday.
Van Baarle reflects fondly on his 2014 triumph and is determined to give another good account of himself in the eight-stage race, but also has one eye on the upcoming World Championships in Richmond, Virginia.
He told the official Tour of Britain website: "It was a really big win for me and still the best result of my career. The victory earned a lot of coverage at home. Not only was the race watched quite a bit on the TV but the fact that I ended up ahead of big name riders like (Michał) Kwiatkowski and (Bradley) Wiggins attracted extra attention.
"Off the back of that result I earned a place in the Netherlands team for the World Championships so I have nothing but good memories of the 2014 Tour of Britain.
"It was definitely a new level for me and I feel like I have built on that this year although I am still looking for a win. I had a third place at Dwars door Vlaanderen, which is perhaps my best result because they are the kind of races I want to become very competitive in.
"There was a fifth in GC at Bayern Rundfahrt and a runner up in a stage at the Eneco Tour recently. I also rode and finished my first Tour de France, which was a great evolution for me. My main ambitions remain the Spring Classics and the short hard stage races like Tour of Britain.
"It could be that one of our other riders eventually has the best chance to win so we must be open to that possibility but I will be riding aggressively on terrain I enjoy. I have also been selected for the World Championships in the USA and this is the perfect lead in.
"In the Dutch team we don't really have a big sprint card to play so we probably need to make it [the World Championships] a hard-ridden, Classics type race and to give ourselves a chance of somebody coming through.
"We will need to be super fit and ride aggressively and the Tour of Britain suits me perfectly as a preparation for that. It will be good to be back."
The 2015 Grand Depart commences in Anglesey and finishes in Wrexham, with the race ending with a three-pronged circuit in Central London.
Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel are standout sprinters in the field, while Wiggins is using the race to continue his preparations for next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Thursday's stage will see the riders climb to the highest-ever summit finish at almost 2,000 feet on Hartside Fell in the Pennines.