1 TOM DUMOULIN

SUNWEB

Dumoulin covered the Montefalco TT around 5s/ km quicker than Quintana

Sunweb rider Dumoulin became the first Dutchman to win the Giro and only the third to win a Grand Tour, after Jan Janssen and Joop Zoetemelk. Moreover, he did it with style and resilience. The 26-year-old’s victory was based on the two key time trials: the hard rolling 39km test to Montefalco where he put in the region of a massive five seconds per kilometre into Nairo Quintana, and the slightly downhill 29km test between Monza and Milan where he overturned the 53 second deficit to Quintana by the first time check. But it was what happened around and between the two TTs that demonstrated Dumoulin’s resistance. He got the better of the stronger climbers with a stage victory on Oropa. But between stages 15 and 20, Dumoulin conceded time on four separate occasions, including his unscheduled and costly pit stop at the bottom of the Umbrailpass on stage 16. And though he buckled, particularly on stage 19 to Piancavallo, he never broke completely and managed his resources masterfully. Factor in his forthright comments about Nibali and Quintana’s tactics in the Dolomites and his appreciation of Bob Jungels’s help on the road to Asiago, and Dumoulin ran out a popular winner.