From fourth to first, Dumoulin wins Giro d’italia with dramatic final stage surge
Tom Dumoulin won the 100th Giro d’italia in dramatic fashion yesterday, reclaiming the overall lead in a final-stage individual time trial.
It’s the first Grand Tour victory for Dumoulin, a Dutchman with Team Sunweb, and sets him up as a potential rival for three-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome.
Dumoulin entered the final stage in fourth position but finished far enough ahead of his rivals over the flat 29-kilometre (18-mile) route from Monza’s Formula One race track to Milan’s cathedral to move back into the lead.
“This is crazy. I could not have imagined this,” Dumoulin said. “I was strong. I was lucky. Just everything fell into place the whole Giro.”
In the overall standings, Dumoulin finished 31 seconds ahead of 2014 champion Nairo Quintana of Colombia and 40 seconds ahead of last year’s winner, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy.
Dumoulin’s fellow Dutchman Jos van Emden won the 21st stage in a time of 33 minutes, eight seconds.
“It couldn’t be better,” Van Emden said. “I’m really happy for Tom. He deserves it.”
Dumoulin came second in the stage, 15 seconds behind. Nibali came 13th, 1:09 behind Emden and Quintana was 27th, 1:39 back. Dumoulin entered the final stage 53 seconds behind Quintana.
Dumoulin also won the race’s other time trial in Stage 10 and claimed Stage 14, which had an uphill finish. Dumoulin wore the leader’s pink jersey for eight days but then struggled in the serious mountain stages and lost the lead to Quintana two days ago.
The concluding time trial was just what du moul in needed, enabling him to become the first Dutch rider to win the Giro.
Great Britain’s Adam Yates was edged out of the race for the white jersey, given to the fastest finisher under 25, by Bob Jungels of Luxembourg.
Yates, who earned the honour at last year’s Tour de France, held a 28-second lead over Jungels but the latter was in control of the last stage from the off and bested the Team Orica rider’s time by more than a minute.