Dutchman surprised by individual time trial course
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Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) blitzed the stage 17 time trial to move back into the red jersey(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) takes back the red jersey(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) dropped Chris Froome (Team Sky) to win stage 9(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Giant-Alpecin on the Richmond Worlds TTT course(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Giant-Alpecin in action(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tom Dumoulin says that he’s returning to his best after finishing sixth in an arduous Vuelta a Espana. Dumoulin made his first competitive appearance since accomplishing that feat in the World Championship team time trial, where he helped his Giant-Alpecin team to finish fifth.
The team time trial was the first test for him ahead of the individual time trial on Wednesday. “Maybe not fully but I hope it will be the case on Wednesday,” he told Cyclingnews when asked if he felt he’d fully recovered fully from the Grand Tour.
“I felt pretty good actually we did a really nice team performance and I contributed to that and maybe my turns weren’t as good as last year but I think that the general level of the team was also higher than last year. It was difficult to stand up and do some really long turns because my teammates were also really strong. I’m walking away with a good feeling after today.”
Dumoulin will be one of the favourites going the time trial on Wednesday, after taking bronze in last year’s event. Now finally in Richmond, he’s had a chance to take a look at the course he’ll have to take on.
“I was surprised. It’s much harder than I expected,” he said. “I looked at it on the internet and I saw no corners and I thought it would be pretty flat but it’s actually not. The beginning is pretty hard and that’s something that suits me pretty well.”
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