Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

[Kwibus]

I'm so gutted right now. It's exactly as i feared.. But he never deserved to fall so far in the gc.
I'm going to drink myself into a coma tonight. Cya sometime next week. I need to recover

I also had an serious hangover feeling, but I don't want a sport to give me that feeling so I managed to shrug it off by now. Took me some time.
It's just sport/entertainment DT. No reason to go all emo about leave that to the football fans!

 

[Kwibus]

Seriously guys stop feeding troll SeriousSam.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

on twitter even guys as Alex Dowsett, Geraint Thomas and Van Garderen all wanted Tom to win it

TT-ers unite.

And somewhere, I can't help but feeling Tony Martin and Rohan Dennis are relieved that Dumoulin is tired.

 

[DFA123]

Dumoulin knew he lost it on the Morcuera apparently; 'his legs were empty'.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dumoulin-reflects-on-brutal-defeat-in-vuelta-a-espana/

Was such a pointless attack at the end of yesterday in the grand scheme of things, wasted energy and burnt matches that he really needed to save; the race was never going to come down to just a handful of seconds.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Dumoulin will be back. Very strong character methinks.
Lost to a superior team, not necessarily a better rider this time.

Early days.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Dumoulin will be back. Very strong character methinks.
Lost to a superior team, not necessarily a better rider this time.

Early days.

I don't think he will be back at the top end of the GC. He got there this time because he gained time in the first week when he wasn't seen as a threat, and then because most mountain stages had such a steep difficult finish, they were soft pedalled for the most part, allowing him to limit his time losses. Nevertheless, he lost time on every high mountain stage.

IMO he should concentrate on the Ardennes classics. His climbing on the steep gradients was excellent when he was relatively fresh and he has the engine to go long at times as well, plus he can sprint better than most guys in those races. Also he could target week long stage races; if he peaks for them he could do very well - a bit like a stronger version of Spilak.

 

[Red Rick]

He got like 1 minute because he was underestimated. On flatter climbs it is easier to follow wheels and save that last bit of energy, the fact that he hung on so long on such steep climbs was very telling. I've been really impressed with his performances on Cumbre del Sol, in Andorra, and in the time trial after 2.5 weeks of fighting for GC.

What should he focus on? I don't know, he's got plenty of potential. TT's, classics, stage races, GT's, apparently he can do it al.

I think the most important thing is to not start obsessing about GT's and just continue to develop. Go into the season, ride the stage races, ride the classics. Go to the Tour and just see if the GC is worth fighting for or if he's just gonna try to win the time trials.

And if he's gonna obsess about his weight, I hope he doesn't go for the meat cleaver but rather the bacon slicer.

 

[mksndz]

Thanks for the wild ride Tom. Today was rough, but I'll always remember this fondly:

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Was nice will it lasted but the GC experiment is over. Back to winning small time TTs and coming third or second in big time TTs

https://youtu.be/QPacLabmsM4

Sorry Sam, I had to laugh.

 

[elfed68]

I bet Dave Brailsford is seriously thinking of building a team around TD, it's what he knows and he's Wiggins 2.0 through and through!!!!

Only 24 with all that TT power and climbing ability, a dream come true! Let Giant Alpecin do what they know best, the boring sprinter stages, let him go somewhere else and be the next superstar!!!!

 

[elfed68]

Re:

Was nice will it lasted but the GC experiment is over. Back to winning small time TTs and coming third or second in big time TTs

He's going to come back and haunt these words big time!!

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

I bet Dave Brailsford is seriously thinking of building a team around TD, it's what he knows and he's Wiggins 2.0 through and through!!!!

Only 24 with all that TT power and climbing ability, a dream come true! Let Giant Alpecin do what they know best, the boring sprinter stages, let him go somewhere else and be the next superstar!!!!

i'm sure sky is licking their lips now.. waiting for him after Froome is done. He is another wiggin 2.0.

 

[gunara]

Re: Re:

I don't think he will be back at the top end of the GC. He got there this time because he gained time in the first week when he wasn't seen as a threat, and then because most mountain stages had such a steep difficult finish, they were soft pedalled for the most part, allowing him to limit his time losses. Nevertheless, he lost time on every high mountain stage.

IMO he should concentrate on the Ardennes classics. His climbing on the steep gradients was excellent when he was relatively fresh and he has the engine to go long at times as well, plus he can sprint better than most guys in those races. Also he could target week long stage races; if he peaks for them he could do very well - a bit like a stronger version of Spilak.

I like every point. I won't hastily say we have a GT star in the making, to me it looks more like a very good, complete, and on form rider almost defeated a field where forms and fatigue skewed the strength level, the route helps a lot, too. But I know, in cycling you'll never know, one important thing is where he wants his career to go from here, what he's willing to sacrifice, he has all the potentials it looks like.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No he definately should not focus on GT's. Every year.
However, should to opportunity come that a TT-heavy GT appears, he should definately give it a go..

This Vuelta was not TT heavy. In fact, it was VERY heavily favored to the climbers. The fact that even then he could be in the leaders jersey till the 20th stage says enough.
He should really go for a GC if there's 80-120km of individual ITT km in a race

 

[movingtarget]

First of all you need team support which Dumoulin has not had in the mountains but it may not have mattered if as he says " he did not have the legs." He has had a great race considering he was not even on the radar before the start. I see no reason that he can't build on this result in the future. And he has done well without hand slings or holding onto cars. The situation he found himself in was similar to Contador in the Giro when Contador was isolated. The difference being Contador is a great GT rider and rescued the situation. No one can say that Dumoulin has not given his all in this race and he should be proud that he pushed Aru so hard over three weeks.

 

[jsem94]

He should become the new Valverde. Winning monuments, perhaps even cobbled ones, and contesting GTs. Being fantastic year round.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

No he definately should not focus on GT's. Every year.
However, should to opportunity come that a TT-heavy GT appears, he should definately give it a go..

This Vuelta was not TT heavy. In fact, it was VERY heavily favored to the climbers. The fact that even then he could be in the leaders jersey till the 20th stage says enough.
He should really go for a GC if there's 80-120km of individual ITT km in a race

Disagree, GT's and in particular Tour is the creme de la creme in cycling and Tom D knows that. He will definetely begin to focus more on that from now on, think about it, he didnt even prepare properly for this Vuelta in a race which only featured 39 km ITT? Thats insane promise. He can still do Ardennes and one week stage races, but maybe not at 100%. I would be very surprised if he doesnt go to the Giro or the Tour next year thinking top-5 or even top-3.

Remember, I'll say it again, GT's are the biggest stage. When you realize you can climb with the best, every god damn rider thinks deep down about the Tour and Tom should do that as well.

 

[Vesica]

Dumoulin already announced that his main focus will be the Rio Olympic TT. He said the Tour is there every year, the Olympics are only every four years.

I think that he will stay focused on TT's and one week stage races like Tour of Swiss, Paris-Nice, Eneco Tour for the coming years. Now it seems that his climbing is improved, he can really win these races and not only fight for the podium.

I see him more as a Spilak/Thomas/Rui Costa/Kwiatkowski type of rider.

 

[SergeDeM]

Doumulin to podium in the 2017 Tour

Seriously, whatever he decides to do with his career, he's made a lot of fans in this Vuelta.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

No he definately should not focus on GT's. Every year.
However, should to opportunity come that a TT-heavy GT appears, he should definately give it a go..

This Vuelta was not TT heavy. In fact, it was VERY heavily favored to the climbers. The fact that even then he could be in the leaders jersey till the 20th stage says enough.
He should really go for a GC if there's 80-120km of individual ITT km in a race

In the tour Froome would destroy him. It will never happen in the vuelta and i wonder if he could do the giro.

Tour suits him the best but he needs to become way better which definitely can happen seeing how he improved till now.

 

["Jeff"]

I see a possible slight improvement in his climbing skills but that wont be enough to focus on the podium in the GT's. I think he knows it too.

The Tour is Hors Category. The Giro is tougher. This was nice and of course he can still ride top20 in the Tour, possibly top10, but he wont sacrifice his other goals for that.

This in contrast to guys like Mollema and Geesink, who hang on for dear life every Tour but never win anything big.

Dumoulin has the package to win a truckload of one week races but winning those wont bring you much glory.

I hope he will focus on big TT's, the Tour of Switzerland, Olympics, Worldchampionships, L-B-L, Lombardy. That kind of stuff.

 

[Bushman]

Re:

He should become the new Valverde. Winning monuments, perhaps even cobbled ones, and contesting GTs. Being fantastic year round.

Yeah, Dumoulin will PR and RVV easily if he just turns his focus that way. Might as well pick LBL and I Lombardia as well now we're there

 

[Red Rick]

I'm not so sure about the Tour level. I don't think the level of the 4-10th spot was very high. Problem is that the riders fighting for yellow tend to stand out a lot.

I think the Tour is mostly contested between riders who can win the Tour and riders who can't win a GT at all. The riders inbetween often try to win the Giro or Vuelta. Dumoulin however, needs to improve his climbing if he wants to fight for the win, and he shouldn't give too many shits about getting 5th in the Tour.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Re:

[quote=""Jeff"":2i06qchv]I see a possible slight improvement in his climbing skills but that wont be enough to focus on the podium in the GT's. I think he knows it too.

The Tour is Hors Category. The Giro is tougher. This was nice and of course he can still ride top20 in the Tour, possibly top10, but he wont sacrifice his other goals for that.

This in contrast to guys like Mollema and Geesink, who hang on for dear life every Tour but never win anything big.

Dumoulin has the package to win a truckload of one week races but winning those wont bring you much glory.

I hope he will focus on big TT's, the Tour of Switzerland, Olympics, Worldchampionships, L-B-L, Lombardy. That kind of stuff.[/quote]I cant see him going over the Gavia, Stelvio or Mortirolo when sucking wheels, although Kruiswijk wasnt doing so bad last year, without the wheelsucking.

We'll see, he shouldnt focus on GT's though, like you said somewhere else, like Bollema and Geesink, there are so many more beautifull races to compete in.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

He should become the new Valverde. Winning monuments, perhaps even cobbled ones, and contesting GTs. Being fantastic year round.

Yeah, such an easy task, Kwiatkowski tried this year..