Tom Dumoulin heads to altitude to chase Giro d’Italia form: ‘I am not at my best level’
Jumbo-Visma star hopes a spell at Tenerife will help him be a factor in the time trials and GC at the Giro d'Italia less than one month away.
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Tom Dumoulin is hoping a spell at altitude will help him get on track for the Giro d’Italia less than a month away.
The Jumbo-Visma star has been struggling all spring long, but took some confidence from Sunday’s hard-fought Amstel Gold Race, when he finished 30th in a chase group at 2:30 back. He couldn’t follow the winning moves, but he wasn’t that far off, either.
“I am happy because it’s enough to face the coming period with confidence,” Dumoulin told Dutch publication AD. “But at the same time, I am not at my best level.”
The 31-year-old Dumoulin raced on home roads Sunday and at last week’s Volta Limburg Classic, where he was sixth.
“I was in the third group after the Keutenberg,” he said. “You always hope for more somewhere, but I didn’t have those legs. There was also a good chance that I wouldn’t have them.”
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After preparing for the 2022 season in Colombia, Dumoulin struggled to stay with the best on climbs at the UAE Tour and then abandoned the Volta a Catalunya last month. It’s not expected that he will race at the Ardennes next month, and might go into the Giro with only 12 days of racing.
“I’m going to Tenerife (Monday) to prepare for the Giro,” he told AD. “I will do the necessary work, without worrying whether it will be enough or not. We will see all of this in the first week of the Giro.
“It makes little sense to elaborate on the Giro. I’ve shown crazy things before with a little lack of preparation,” he said. “I’m going to do the work that’s needed, and then I’m not concerned with whether it’s going to be enough or if I can join the GC battle. We will see that in the first week of the Giro.”
Dumoulin is putting the Giro at the center of his ambitions in 2022, and he said his goals remain the same despite an uneven spring so far this season.
“Even if I don’t have my best legs at the moment, I will stick to the objectives defined,” he said. “That’s to do two very good time trials and aim for the general classification.”
