Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

[PremierAndrew]

Well even Froome looks like he's struggling. Without a 80km solo, Dumo would perhaps be on for the first Giro-Tour double since pantani, a year after losing a fair bit of form in third week of Giro

 

[Matteo.]

Re:

Well even Froome looks like he's struggling. Without a 80km solo, Dumo would perhaps be on for the first Giro-Tour double since pantani, a year after losing a fair bit of form in third week of Giro

I agree, with a right route and a decent team he can absolutely do it

 

[Red Rick]

Sky's gonna win the next 5 Tours with Bernal don't worry

 

[Billie]

Re:

Sky's gonna win the next 5 Tours with Bernal don't worry

wrong flag

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Sky's gonna win the next 5 Tours with Luke Rowe don't worry

ftfy

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

On course to have an Ullrich / Zoetemelk career of many second places

 

[Leinster]

Re:

On course to have an Ullrich / Zoetemelk career of many second places

Steady on. His first time riding the TdF for GC. With a long mountain stage and a TT still to come, he’s in 2nd place, less than 2’ behind yellow. Without his time lost at Bretagne, he would be less than 1’ down. He’s 4-5 years younger than Thomas or Froome so has a few years left of GC contention. It’s too early to call this Tour over (though it probably is) let alone future years.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

But the future has Bernal. And probably Tao Geoghehan Hart, and Stephen Williams, and whatever track riding Brit they can come up with

 

[del1962]

With a a more tactical brain and a lack of mechanical he would have won the Giro and been 40 second behind going into the ITT of a double

 

[Big Doopie]

Re:

On course to have an Ullrich / Zoetemelk career of many second places

true, but deserves so much more.

at least for ullrich and zoetemelk there was a traditional amount of ITT.

GTs are so skewed these days that dumoulin - who is in the mold of GT winners past (just ask Thomazeau of cycling podcast) - will win far fewer than his class deserves.

also, dumoulin attacked more in this stage (i.e. once) than zoetemelk did in his entire career. ;-)

then again, zoetemelk's career literally bridged perfectly over the careers of the two most dominant riders of all time.

 

[kiszol]

Re:

On course to have an Ullrich / Zoetemelk career of many second places

Who knows. He has a fantastic year, we can say that now, the second fantastic year in a row. And he is still progressing, he has better climbing legs than last year. Bernal (and Gaudu, etc.) is coming, but I wouldn't be sure he will be an instant Tour winner in the next 2 years. Dumoulin is climbing like the best climbers in this Tour and I very much doubt that Bernal will be MUCH better than a prime form Quintana, if better at all. Btw Dumoulin has the TTs on his side and he is very good tactically (despite losing the Giro partly because a tactical error - that was a very hard decision he had to make at that point quickly). I think if Sunweb shows up with the best possible team and Tom focuses on the Tour next year he will have a very good shot at winning it!

 

[Red Rick]

Here I am hoping he'll have anything left to give the Worlds a decent shot

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I dunno, he tried peaking 3 times in a season earlier and that failed badly (Giro, Olympics TT, World TT). He was bad at worlds.

However, he had a super light schedule up to the Grand Tours. So who knows.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

I dunno, he tried peaking 3 times in a season earlier and that failed badly (Giro, Olympics TT, World TT). He was bad at worlds.

However, he had a super light schedule up to the Grand Tours. So who knows.

We're in uncharted freaking territory anyway. What else is there to do but try? He can end the season, which doesn't happen too often but I wouldn't begrudge him for it, or he can ride some races that are still worth riding

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I mean he already far exceeded any expectations. I had some confidence he would do well for at least 2 weeks, because I thought the course suited him more than you'd think. But I kinda expected him to fade in the 3rd week. But he shows no real signs of that. I'm really surprised that he has no bad days in 2 GT's as well. In the Giro last year he was really fading in the last week.

The only difference I can find he's mainly been the chaser, not the chased. He could ride in the wheel a lot more and didn't need to respond to every attack himself (Sky train).

 

[Poursuivant]

I can really see him targetting the TDF next year, in fact I thought he would this year . If there is a lot of TT miles, he would be very hard to beat.

 

[kiszol]

Re:

I can really see him targetting the TDF next year, in fact I thought he would this year . If there is a lot of TT miles, he would be very hard to beat.

I guess there will be no TTT but a bit more ITT kms. Good for Tom.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

I can really see him targetting the TDF next year, in fact I thought he would this year . If there is a lot of TT miles, he would be very hard to beat.

He should pray that Bardet wins the lottery and announces an early retirement

 

[Lequack]

Love this guy:
https://twitter.com/SchifoJason/status/1022252287803224066

 

[lmrt]

L'equipe today announces he will target the Tour in 2019, no Giro. They are quoting Spekenbrink who says they will bring Oomen and Kelderman.

 

[Red Rick]

100% chance Kelderman gets that spot in the train behind his team leader

 

[brownbobby]

Dumoulin focused fully on the TDF is a scary prospect for the rest of the peloton.....based on what we've seen this year i don't see anybody who can beat him, no matter what the course.

 

[Cinemaniak]

I expect some kind of coupe for tomorrow between him and Roglic. They are both great in the decent and the Tourmalet provides an excellent opportunity for that. Sunweb has the ability to send guys in the front. Haga, Kragh Andersen & Arndt could set a very high pace in that tricky part after the Tourmalet and Lotto-Jumbo can put pressure on the sky train uphill. It's going to be a very spectacular stage on friday, "for sure" (Roglic)

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

I expect some kind of coupe for tomorrow between him and Roglic. They are both great in the decent and the Tourmalet provides an excellent opportunity for that. Sunweb has the ability to send guys in the front. Haga, Kragh Andersen & Arndt could set a very high pace in that tricky part after the Tourmalet and Lotto-Jumbo can put pressure on the sky train uphill. It's going to be a very spectacular stage on friday, "for sure" (Roglic)

Expect a battle for the breakaway
Expect Quintana to throw a huge bomb on the climb of the Tourmalet.

They'll need a decent gap and a lot of manpower ahead. And they'll all need to make it.

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

I dunno, he tried peaking 3 times in a season earlier and that failed badly (Giro, Olympics TT, World TT). He was bad at worlds.

However, he had a super light schedule up to the Grand Tours. So who knows.

I guess he'll take some weeks rest after the Tour and then will properly build up to the WC (and Lombardia), he must be aware that this is the WC course where he has a chance of winning, it will not happen often.