Dumoulin and Barguil sign three-year renewals with Giant-Alpecin

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Gaint-Alpecin has committed to their key riders Tom Dumoulin and Warren Barguil for an additional three years, extending both of their contracts with the German WorldTour team through 2018.

"We are delighted to continue working with Tom and Warren to help them develop further as riders and achieve their maximum potential," said Team Giant-Alpecin CEO Iwan Spekenbrink.

Dumoulin, 24, has had a total of nine professional wins since joining the team in 2012 when it was a Professional Continental outfit called Argos-Shimano. Since then he has become one of the world’s leading time triallists and stage racers, having placed sixth overall at the Vuelta a Espana, and won two stages, this year. He also won the time trial stages at the Tour de Suisse and Pais Vasco. While sitting in third place overall, he was forced to abandon the Tour de France on stage 3 in Huy following a crash.

"This year we have seen Tom make a great step forward in his development both as a rider and as a person, which has led to some impressive results already," Spekenbrink said. "The way he dealt with his crash at the Tour de France and how he acts as a leader within the team show that he is capable of playing a leadership role."

Dumoulin praised the team saying that he feels good with the direction he has taken with the Giant-Alpecin team and believes he can further develop by staying with the program for an additional three seasons.

"I will get all the support I need to make the next steps in my career," Dumoulin said. "I am pleased with how we have worked together so far. We have made great progress every year, and this is one of the reasons to stay with the team. Another important factor is that my growth is paralleling the growth of the team, and it is great to be part of a challenging environment."

Barguil, 23, also joined the team in 2012 as a stagiaire during the month of August and has developed into a promising stage racer and climber during his three full season with the team on the WorldTour. He has had two professional wins during that time, both in 2013 at the Vuelta a Espana.

He made his debut at the Tour de France in July where he was given a chance to show himself in the mountains and ended up placing a respectable 14th place overall. He also had top-10 performances at the Tour de Suisse, Clasica San Sebastian and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec, all WorldTour events.

"With Warren, we decided back in 2013 to create a long-term performance plan to help him become a strong GC rider in the future," Spekenbrink said. "As a result, we sent him to this year’s Tour de France to learn and to discover his capabilities in a race like the Tour, which will be an important step in his development as a GC rider. For us, it was an obvious choice to continue executing the performance plan with Warren and our performance staff. We believe that we can continue to grow together and produce some strong performances."

Like Dumoulin, Barguil is staying with Giant-Alpecin because he wants to further develop his talents as an overall classification rider. "I am confident that the team can help me take the next steps, and that is why I want to stay for three more years," he said.

"The atmosphere in the team is great and my teammates are very helpful, and that is important to me. When I am racing I feel good with everyone around me, and I just don’t want to leave for a different team. Now that the team is growing, it is important to have the right GC support, not only during races but also before and after."