Suffice to say, Tom Dumoulin and his Giro d'Italia Odyssey is headline news in the Netherlands. Not even the presence of Ajax in a European final for the first time in 21 years seems to be detracting attention from the maglia rosa, whose crossover celebrity grew still further in the past 24 hours after an urgent toilet stop threatened to leave his challenge in tatters in the shadow of the Stelvio.
Having salvaged his overall lead with a measured lone pursuit on the Umbrailpass on Tuesday, Dumoulin enjoyed a rather calmer afternoon on stage 17 of the Giro, as the race made the long trek towards Canazei. He finished safely in the main peloton to retain his lead, 31 seconds clear of Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and sat down to a press conference where his temporary crisis of the previous day was, of course, the primary topic of discussion.
"I'm not here to write history because I'm shitting in the bushes," Dumoulin deadpanned in response to yet another question on the incident, just about stifling a grin. "I want to write history by getting the pink jersey in Milan."
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All eyes were on Dumoulin as he reported to the start in Tirano, and though the Dutchman showed no signs of distress as he went to sign on, he confessed afterwards that he had set out on the road to Canazei nursing a certain amount of trepidation. "I felt much better today. I was a little bit insecure in the morning," Dumoulin said. "I had to eat bars and food in the race and then I was a little bit worried that it wouldn't be ok but it was completely fine and I had no problems."
Dumoulin was fortunate, perhaps, that Wednesday's stage, though long, was the least demanding of the Giro's mountainous final week. Although the speed was high on the short opening climb to Aprica, there was precious little chance of an ambush on the maglia rosa with so much distance left to run. "I knew it was very long after the second climb until the finish, so I would have been very, very surprised if any GC riders attacked, especially with the hard days ahead, although Bahrain made it hard for us at the start," Dumoulin said.
The whys and wherefores of Dumoulin's enforced stop on stage 16 continue to be debated, though his performance on the Umbrailpass – where he conceded precious little ground to Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) et al once he had remounted – strongly suggests that it was not a symptom of an underlying illness. He dismissed the hypothesis that the pressing call of nature had been caused by stress, pointing out that he had suffered a similar issue at last year's Tour de France, where he rode with no general classification ambitions.
Into the Dolomites
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