Van Baarle targets greater consistency as Kerrison steps in as coach

Dylan Van Baarle's first year at Team Sky could be split into two discernable halves. In the first months, the talented Dutch rider struggled with his new environment after a late switch from Slipstream Sports. He picked up top-20 rides at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but never truly hit the high notes or developed as quickly as many thought he would.

A TTT triumph at the Critérium du Dauphiné, followed by a fine win in the national time trial championships, and then fifth overall at the BinckBank Tour, put a slightly better gloss on 2018, but the 26-year-old is determined to kick on this year.

A change of race programme and a new coach are two of the major alterations that have been made over the winter. For the first time in his career, Van Baarle has started his season at the Tour Down Under, while the rest of his spring will include the Volta ao Algarve, Opening Weekend, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan San Remo and the cobbled Classics.

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"I've been here for two weeks and I'm enjoying it. This is my first time here so we'll see if it's the best preparation for the Classics, but I stopped early last year so it's good to get going here," he told Cyclingnews in Australia, referring to the fractured pelvis that forced him out of last year's Vuelta a España on stage 14 – two days after he had finished second to Alexandre Geniez.

"I expected more from the Classics, but then everything went well [after that]. I won the TT championships, which I was proud of, and then I had a good BinckBank. If you had to sum it up, I'd say that I had two sides to the season. It's hard to put my finger on what happened in the Classics. It was a change for me and I had to get used to everything. The bike was different, the tyres, and how the team operate. There are so many different people. It meant I wasn't as good as I wanted to be, but I hope to find my way. I changed coach, too. But now I feel ready to race."

Van Baarle has changed coaches repeatedly over the last three years. At Slipstream he was tutored by Jonathan Vaughters, while his first season at Team Sky saw Dario Cioni take up the responsibility. This season has sparked another change, with Tim Kerrison taking over.

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