Perhaps Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) already knew what was coming, or perhaps his Italian is simply improving with each passing day of media commitments on this Giro d'Italia. Either way, the maglia rosa didn't need to wait for a translation of the first question of his press conference in Tortona after stage 13. The Giro reaches the Alps on Saturday with a summit finish at Oropa, and though Dumoulin has not been to reconnoitre the climb, he seems to have a fair idea of what is coming there, too.
"Tomorrow will be very hard on the last 30 minutes but the rest of the stage will be pretty easy," Dumoulin said. "The lower part of the climb is not so hard either so maybe it will only be the last 20 minutes that are full gas. That's normally what suits me very well."
On the Blockhaus last weekend, certainly, Dumoulin performed strongly on a similarly-structured stage, and on a notably tougher final climb. Oropa owes its renown more for Marco Pantani's famous comeback in 1999 than for the severity of its gradients, and on its last appearance in the corsa rosa in 2014, the ascent did little to separate the overall contenders.
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Dumoulin fulfilled expectations by winning the Montefalco time trial and moving into the pink jersey, but the lead he has amassed over his overall rivals exceeded even his most optimistic hopes. The Dutchman is 2:23 clear of Nairo Quintana (Movistar), while defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) lies a further 24 seconds back.
The sense of urgency among the men chasing Dumoulin is only amplified by the knowledge that he can rely on another, 30-kilometre time trial on the final day in Milan. For that reason, Nibali's coach Paolo Slongo maintains that Dumoulin has a 'virtual' lead closer to five minutes. The onus, then is on Nibali, Quintana, Thibaut Pinot et al to attack Dumoulin early and often from here to the final mountain stage to Asiago a week on Saturday.
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