It might not have been possible in Utrecht in the Tour de France in July 2015, but at the 2016 Giro d'Italia start in Apeldoorn Holland’s Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) more than lived up to massive local expectations to win the opening short time trial and claim the first pink leader's jersey.
The Maastricht-born rider’s winning margin on a fast, flat 9.8-kilometre course was a very small one, less than two hundredths of a second over Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo). He was not, he said afterwards, convinced he had turned in his best time trial performance, either. But as Dumoulin put it, “it could have been one hundredth of a second or a minute or ten minutes margin for my victory, I don’t care. The important thing was winning.”
Fourth in the Utrecht prologue of the Tour de France was one big disappointment last year and so too, was how close Dumoulin came to taking Holland’s first Vuelta a España win since 1979 that September - before it all fell apart on the very last mountain stage. Ultimately the 2015 Vuelta a España represented both huge progress for Dumoulin on a personal level towards GC contention followed by considerable disappointment at such a last-minute defeat. But in Dumoulin’s next Grand Tour, on home soil in the Giro d’Italia on a brilliantly warm, sunny May afternoon in the town of Apeldoorn, this time there were no such mixed feelings to ruin his race.
ADVERTISEMENT
“In cycling, plans mostly don’t come together, because it’s pretty hard to win races in this sport,” Dumoulin reasoned.
“I was unlucky in one time trial in the Tour Romandie [which he lost a time trial to Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) by two seconds] but here I was very, very lucky. Two hundredths of a second is really nothing. This time I was on the right side of luck.
“I meant it when I said, it would be very difficult to win here and maybe my chances on the stage nine time trial are actually higher. But I did it and it’s beautiful.”
- More on this story: Giro d'Italia: How the GC contenders fared on stage 1
- Giro d’Italia stage 1: Results, report and gallery
- Giro d'Italia stage 1: Video Highlights
- Giro d'Italia stage 1: Finish line quotes
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1q4rYvb
No comments:
Post a Comment