BURGOS, Spain (VN) — Tom Dumoulin is riding a dream Vuelta a España. He sits fourth overall after wearing the leader’s jersey and winning a stage against Chris Froome (Sky). On Wednesday, the Dutchman could win again in the time trial in Spain’s northwest and take enough of an advantage to win the race overall Sunday.
As the Giant-Alpecin team captain sat outside, next to the team’s hotel in the Burgos sun, he could not have imagined such a scenario. At the Tour de France, he had to abandon with a dislocated shoulder and he was unsure if he would even race the Vuelta. Even when he began over two weeks ago, without a grand tour pedigree, he did not think about the podium.
“Everything at this point is a bonus,” he said on the rest day ahead of the third week.
“I had a stage win and the red jersey already. Even if I do gain enough time on Rodríguez and [Fabio] Aru to take the red jersey and then lose it, it [would] just be, ‘**** happens.'”
However, Dumoulin could gain enough time and could defend the jersey to the final stage in Madrid on September 13. Experts say he could gain three seconds a kilometer on a course like tomorrow’s 38.7-kilometer stage 17 in Burgos. And some, like Sky principal David Brailsford, say that he can take enough to easily wipe clear his 1:51-minute deficit to Spaniard Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) and go on to win the race overall.
Brailsford guided another gifted time trialist, Bradley Wiggins, to the Tour de France win in 2012. He did so again twice with Chris Froome, admittedly a more gifted climber. Dumoulin finished third to Wiggins in world time trial championships last year in Ponferrada, Spain.
“The time trial course is nice, I like it. It has rolling hills, up and down the whole time,” he said about the Vuelta’s test. “I’ve always been good at that type of course.”
Besides Rodríguez, he has to deal with Italian Fabio Aru (Astana) at one second back in the classification and Pole Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), third place at 1:35. Neither is as good at time trial riding as Dumoulin.
Regardless of the result, the Vuelta has changed Dumoulin’s career. This winter, after he races the worlds in Richmond, he and team Giant will need to consider what is next.
If he races for the classification in a grand tour next year, Giant will have to send a team to support him. And if he does so, he will have to keep Rio de Janeiro in mind — he wants to win the Olympic gold medal in the time trial August 10.
“I thought about it, but it’s too early to say something smart,” he said.
“It will be a question of seeing how I perform in the worlds. If I do well, I definitely won’t do the Tour for GC, because Rio will be my main target.
“This Vuelta, though, has shown that I’m really good on the climbs. I already showed that I could go well in the Tour de Suisse, where I placed third this year.
“My climbing is getting better and better. It definitely means that grand tours are something I can do.”
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