Report: Tom Dumoulin to ride GC at the Giro d’Italia
The Italian grand tour would be Tom Dumoulin's first three-week race since he quit the Vuelta a España in 2020.
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Tom Dumoulin is headed to the Giro d’Italia in 2022.
The Jumbo-Visma rider had already confirmed that he would return to grand tour racing after skipping them entirely during 2021.
According to a report by Dutch website Wielerflits, Dumoulin and his team have made a decision to target the general classification at the Giro d’Italia in May.
“I will ride for the classification in a grand tour in 2022,” Dumoulin told Dutch daily De Telegraaf in December. “We have talked a lot about it in the team in recent months. I think riding a classification is very special. That is the ultimate challenge, the pinnacle of cycling.”
Dumoulin took his first and, currently, only grand tour victory at the Giro in 2017. He fended off Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali by 31 and 40 seconds, respectively, to take the title.
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He finished second to Chris Froome the following year but had to leave the 2019 race early after injuring his knee in a pile-up on stage 4. The injury would continue to impact him throughout the remainder of that season.
Dumoulin sat out much of the early part of the 2021 season after deciding to take a sabbatical from cycling.
He returned to racing at the Tour de Suisse last June and took the Dutch national time trial title before claiming a silver medal in the time trial at the Olympic Games.
However, Dumoulin had to end his season in September after he broke his wrist when he was hit by a driver during a training ride.
If Dumoulin does line-up in Budapest on the opening stage of the 2022 Giro d’Italia on May 6, it will be his first grand tour since he abandoned the 2020 Vuelta a España on stage 8.
The parcours for the Italian grand tour is focused on the climbers in the peloton with just 26.3 kilometers of time trialing across the three weeks, so it remains to be seen how Dumoulin matches up against some of the pure climbers in the pack.
Few riders have confirmed their grand tour plans this season, but Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana-Qazaqstan), Richie Porte, and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), and Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) are expected to line up in Budapest.
