Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

[Tonton]

Back on topic:

I still believe that Tom Dumoulin can win this bike race. The lost time on Sunday was a blow, no doubt. But he can reasonably sit tomorrow night less than thirty seconds down on the pink jersey, with a ____/ that he can do, a Strade on steroids that could be muddy, nasty, he can climb and ride classics, who knows? The Saturday stage could be tricky, but everybody will be cooked, so it's a lottery.

By the way, flat on the Finestre, should others wait? No one waits in PR...

Until Sunday and the cup, Dumoulin is the champ. And may remain the champ. Can Yates possibly keep riding at this level? Who knows. People need to start attacking him to find out. And that's the tricky thing as you get further and further in a GT. We saw it on Sunday...personal interest, defensive riding often prevails.

Go Tom. Kick some...you know what.

 

[DNP-Old]

Tom did an interview with MD, and, well, I don't know how on earth he is going to manage this. After the Giro, he'll go on vacation, participate in the Hammer Series, do some altitude training and participate in the Tour de Suisse, before deciding whether to go to the Tour or not. That's too much if you ask me.

 

[Red Rick]

Tour de Suisse and Tour?

And I thought he was a smart dude.

 

[Gigs_98]

And why on earth going to the hammer series too? That will again be 3 super high intensity days. Not exactly perfect for a rest.
If he really does that after the giro he should definitely skip the tour and focus 100% on the vuelta. Not that he had a big chance in the tour anyway

 

[Valv.Piti]

Suisse and Hammer Series before TdF, lmao...

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Suisse and Hammer Series before TdF, lmao...

Paging Libertine Seguros to give Dumoulin a call regarding Hammer Series.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re:

Tom did an interview with MD, and, well, I don't know how on earth he is going to manage this. After the Giro, he'll go on vacation, participate in the Hammer Series, do some altitude training and participate in the Tour de Suisse, before deciding whether to go to the Tour or not. That's too much if you ask me.

And he should participate at least in 1st part of Footbal WC as goalkeeper, but as Dutch he can't.

 

[yaco]

Dumoulin is appearing in the Limburg part of the Hammer Series - He'll appear in this race every year if he rides the Giro - After all it's in Holland.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well that's just ***

 

[Bolder]

Regarding ITT/TTTs: I do miss TTTs in GTs (how's that for abbreviation overload), and I also love when there's a prologue, a hilly ITT and a flat ITT. To me, a Grand Tour should include ALL the disciplines, including team cohesiveness. If you exclude time trials or minimize them, then you might as well get rid of a bunch of rolling or sprint stages, too.

Dumoulin should be able to take 1:30 - 1:45 from Yates today, head- or tailwind, and then hopefully he'll have a chance to attack. We saw yesterday that Pinot and Pozzo probably won't. But we'll see in the next fwe hours!

 

[Red Rick]

Average ITT today.

 

[classicomano]

Maybe we're just expecting too much. Take Yates out of the equation and hes comfortably beating the rest of the field.

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

Average ITT today.

To his standards yep, but the TT didn't suit him very well either.

 

[movingtarget]

Yates rode a very good TT. Looking at Dumoulin's form throughout the race this was only marginally worse. Some great TT riders ahead of him. The time gap to Dennis was surprising but Dennis is usually a very good TT rider especially on these types of courses.

 

[Netserk]

It's his best flat ITT. It was nontechnical and absolutely top competition.

 

[Red Rick]

He's absolutely done better on flat courses.

I think this is an average performance by a world class athlete

 

[shalgo]

Re:

It's his best flat ITT. It was nontechnical and absolutely top competition.

This. I don't know where people are getting the idea that this was an "average" or poor TT from Dumoulin. He has never been dominant on long, flat TTs.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

He's absolutely done better on flat courses.

I think this is an average performance by a world class athlete

Name one. Seriously, check out the field in this one.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

He's absolutely done better on flat courses.

I think this is an average performance by a world class athlete

Name one. Seriously, check out the field in this one.

Tour de France 2015 - stage 1.

Similar result on a way faster ITT.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

He's absolutely done better on flat courses.

I think this is an average performance by a world class athlete

Name one. Seriously, check out the field in this one.

Tour de France 2015 - stage 1.

Wasn't he fourth there behind Dennis, Martin and...Spartacus?

 

[hfer07]

I cannot say I'm completely happy with Dumo's ITT performance, but I surely can state that I'm very pleased with the way he's performing in Il Giro so far, confirming his GT credentials & consistency (( in a healthy & credible fashion ))

 

[Netserk]

I'd say similar to today, and it was more technical than this one, not to mention that he was as rested before it as his competition, unlike today.

 

[Red Rick]

Dumoulin is very disappointed with his ITT. Started out conservatively as he usually does in long ITTs and then couldn't push through like he normally likes to do.

His goal was either to get pink or win the ITT. He called it an okay ITT, but not one of his better ones.

 

[JosephK]

I think Saturday's climb up the Zonc and Sunday's crazy chase behind Yates may have still been in Tom's legs for the ITT, even after the rest day. True, the other GC guys chasing Yates were in the same boat, but think how deep Dumoulin had to go on Saturday to limit his losses, and then again on Sunday to get back to the small pack chasing Yates. And he still put time into those guys, and Yates, . . . and Froome today. Maybe not as much as he wanted, but when you consider where he's placed right now in the Giro, he's going about as well as he could have expected. (He could not have expected Yates to be so far beyond everyone else's level.)

 

[DFA123]

So will we see Dumoulin attacking, trying to mix it up in the last week to trouble Yates? The terrain and stage design is there for a weaker climber to make like difficult for a stronger one.

Or will he just do what he always does - passively ride at tempo and hope Yates somehow fades?