Saturday, 14 May 2016

Dumoulin defeated, drops out of Giro d'Italia contention

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Defeated but defiant on the s'terrata gravel roads, former Giro d'Italia leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) says he will return to his original plan of fighting for the time trials after losing the maglia rosa.

Unless his defeat on the second category climb of Alpe di Poti is merely a hiccup in his climbing form, the overall classification is no longer possible, Dumoulin recognised. "At least 20 or 30 riders were better than me today, so it makes not sense to go for GC," he said.

"Looking at it now, we're going back to plan A, which was the time trials."

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Contenders like Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) drove their group as hard as possible to gain as much of an advantage on the Dutchman before Sunday's stage 9 time trial. After his stunning performance at the summit finish of Roccaraso two days ago, suddenly Dumoulin looked to be in trouble on a much shorter, but much steeper and trickier Alpe di Poti.

Dumoulin was dropped very early second category ascent, and while other riders like Mikel Landa (Sky) were initially in trouble, they were able to bridge up to the front group. The Dutch rider, however, slowly but steadily sank out of contention.

The maglia rosa already looked set to go to breakaway rider Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quick Step), given he was 1:56 down on Dumoulin before the stage and held a lead of roughly three minutes on the climb. Dumoulin was isolated on the final climb, although teammate Niklas Arndt was present in the breakaway and able to give him some backing on the final kilometres after the climb.

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You can read more at Cyclingnews.com



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