{"id":8528,"date":"2026-03-26T11:48:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/8528\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:48:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:48:04","slug":"van-baarle-back-in-belgium-after-training-miles-with-ferrand-prevot-and-gesink-as-steels-weighs-in-on-revamped-e3-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/8528\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Baarle back in Belgium after training miles with Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot and Gesink as Steels weighs in on revamped E3 route"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soudal Quick-Step are also entering an important spell in the season, starting with Friday\u2019s E3 Saxo Classic<\/a>. The Belgian team will line up with Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle<\/a> as its leaders, and sports director Tom Steels has outlined the squad\u2019s ambitions ahead of the race. <\/p>\n

Stuyven was forced to skip Opening Weekend through illness, but his performances in Paris-Nice \u2014 where he finished third and eighth on stages \u2014 and his seventh place at Milan-Sanremo showed he has fully recovered. The Belgian was runner-up in E3 two years ago and finished seventh in the race last season, which underlines why Soudal Quick-Step are looking to him as one of their main cards for Harelbeke.<\/p>\n

Van Baarle, meanwhile, has not raced since his strong outings in the Volta ao Algarve and Opening Weekend, having opted for an altitude camp in Andorra instead. His partner Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> was also there, while the Dutchman also logged plenty of kilometres with former teammates, including Koen Bouwman and Andorra resident Robert Gesink<\/a>. IDL Pro Cycling had already reported in February that Van Baarle planned to return to racing at E3 after a second altitude block together with Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"dylan-van-baarle-koen-bouwman\"\/<\/p>\n

Van Baarle and Bouwman in the snow at Andorra.<\/p>\n

Steels on Soudal Quick-Step and the extra Oude KwaremontSteels also addressed the changed route, and in this case the original quote is available in English from Soudal Quick-Step\u2019s team website<\/a>. \u201cThe course has changed a bit and it will be interesting to see how things will look with the double ascent of the Kwaremont. Aside from that, there are also some intermediate parts where the race could kick off or restart. We have a strong team, with Jasper and Dylan as our leaders.\u201dHe then ran through the rest of the line-up. Pepijn Reinderink comes in after a solid Milano-Sanremo, while Casper Pedersen had already shown last year how strong he can be in these races. Jonathan Vervenne and Warre Vangheluwe are expected to provide support, and Dries Van Gestel could prove an important road captain in the finale. Laurenz Rex and Paul Magnier are not part of the E3 selection, with both riders instead set to race In Flanders Fields on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The extra Oude Kwaremont has made an already selective race even tougher. IDL Pro Cycling\u2019s E3 preview notes that the added climb further tilts the race toward the strongest classics specialists, with Mathieu van der Poel again the standout favourite and riders such as Stuyven and Van Baarle among the experienced outsiders who could still shape the race if conditions and tactics fall their way.<\/p>\n

Selection Soudal Quick-Step E3 Saxo Classic 2026<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Casper Pedersen<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Pepijn Reinderink<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Jasper Stuyven<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Dylan van Baarle<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Dries Van Gestel<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Warre Vangheluwe<\/p>\n

\u25b8 Jonathan Vervenne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soudal Quick-Step are also entering an important spell in the season, starting with Friday\u2019s E3 Saxo Classic. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,1682,3331,6018,6019,6017],"class_list":{"0":"post-8528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-cycling","10":"tag-dylan-van-baarle","11":"tag-e3-saxo-classic","12":"tag-pauline-ferrand-prevot","13":"tag-robert-gesink"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116295323130322222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}