The time triallist must travel light, and as Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) peered out at the rain from the start house in Radda in Chianti on Sunday afternoon, he realised that he would be carrying too much baggage on the route of the Giro d’Italia’s stage 9 time trial.
For all the forward planning that goes into it, in its execution, time trialling is a discipline of sensations rather than of thoughts. The rain-soaked roads meant that Dumoulin already doubted that he would be unable to beat the mark established by eventual stage winner Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo). Once he began over-thinking the curves and bends in the road, any chance of reclaiming the maglia rosa vanished, too.
“When I have my best time trials, I have no thoughts. I just go and I don’t think about it,” Dumoulin said on Monday afternoon. “But before and during the time trial [on Sunday], I had thoughts like ‘Ooh, should I take this corner? Let’s brake a little more to be safe.’ If you have those thoughts, you’re never going to win. Winning was never possible anyway, but I wasn’t going to be able to take the pink jersey either. Thinking is bad in a TT.”
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The Chianti time trial was the second leg of a total loss weekend for Dumoulin, who had already conceded the overall lead of the Giro when he was distanced on the dirt climb of Alpi di Poti, near Arezzo on Saturday afternoon. Speaking to reporters outside the Semifonte Hotel near Barberino Val d’Elsa as the Giro broke for its second rest day on Monday, Dumoulin had no doubts as to which was the greater setback.
The general classification at the Giro was always something of a speculative punt for Dumoulin, who has built his season around the time trial at the Rio 2016 Olympics, but stage 9 in Chianti was, he felt, a rather surer bet.
“The stage from Saturday was a disappointment because I didn’t expect to lose the pink jersey that quickly. My level wasn’t high enough to go for GC so I knew I was going to lose it somewhere. It was earlier than expected but still it was OK, but yesterday was actually the main goal of this Giro and the bigger disappointment,” Dumoulin said.
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