Having passed one minor but tricky climbing ‘exam' on Tuesday's stage 4 with no difficulties whatsoever, on Thursday's stage 6, Giro d'Italia leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) came through a second, tougher mountain test with flying colours, taking time on almost all his top rivals with a driving late attack.
Dumoulin had warned that on the steady rather than ultra-steep slopes of the 18 kilometre Roccaraso climb he might try to put some time into his rivals, and he duly opened up the throttle a little under three kilometres from the line. But few would have expected Dumoulin to be able to gain such an across-the-board advantage on several top contenders, including 14 seconds on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and 21 seconds on Mikel Landa (Sky) and top favourite Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
Apart form the Belgian stage winner Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), only Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) managed to gain a few seconds on Dumoulin. Overall, Dumoulin now holds a strengthened 41 second advantage on Valverde, 47 seconds on Nibali and 1:08 on Landa. And there is still the Chianti time trial on Sunday to come, where in theory Dumoulin should be able to open up even more of a gap on his rivals.
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Strategically, Dumoulin showed he was racing equally impressively. Rather than let himself be drawn into chasing down Nibali when he attacked while Dumoulin was isolated from his Giant teammates, the Dutchman gambled on Movistar and Sky working to bring Nibali back. It was a gamble which worked perfectly, and after Nibali's attack had been closed down, Dumoulin, some 2.5 kilometres from the line, accelerated away and dropped his rivals.
The net result is that Dumoulin is now looking stronger than ever as race leader, and at the same time, given his climbing prowess, it looks increasingly possible that he could make a serious bid on the general classification for the Giro d'Italia. Key to that, of course, is the Dutchman's climbing ability in much harder climbs than anything on offer in the Apennines on Thursday. But even so, to date his climbing performances in the Giro have been far better than he imagined possible.
"I always said that I hadn't prepared for the high mountains and for GC but I surprised myself today, I didn't think I would be this good," Dumoulin said afterwards. "Of course when I worked for the Giro d'Italia I worked hard but only at home, I didn't do any mountain training camps."
- Giro d’Italia stage 6: Finish line quotes
- Giro d’Italia stage 6 highlights - Video
- Dumoulin undaunted by Giro d’Italia’s first summit finish at Roccaraso
- Dumoulin defines leading Giro d'Italia in Netherlands as a 'dream scenario'
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