Dumoulin on course to start Tour de France

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Tom Dumoulin’s participation in the Tour de France looks all but certain after his Giant-Alpecin team confirmed he would aim to use the race as his build up to the Olympic Games in Rio.

“With regard to Dumoulin’s road to the Olympics, we designed our plan based on a closer analysis of Tom’s physiological output from the Giro,” his coach Adriaan Helmantel said in a press release.

“For now, it looks ideal to combine specific training, selected rest periods and an altitude camp with the Dutch championships in June and the Tour de France in July. In terms of a physiological buildup, we’ve identified this as the ideal calendar for Tom’s middle block of the season, which ends with Rio as a highlighted goal. We’ll keep monitoring at every step, and the analysis of his training sessions in June will be the crucial factor in assessing whether we can stick with this plan.”

Dumoulin has made no secret of his ambition to win the time trial gold at the Olympics in August and took part in the Giro d’Italia in May. He won the opening time trial in Holland – his and his team’s first win of the season – and impressed throughout the opening stages before abandoning on stage 11 due to saddle sore after his GC ambitions crumbled in the mountains.

After recovering from his exploits in Italy, Dumoulin has rested and recuperated and will link up with his team at an altitude camp. He will also race the Dutch national championships before his probable Tour participation.

“During the altitude camp we work on the endurance base, which is crucial in building toward top form and to reach race finales as fresh as possible. With Tom we will focus on specific time trial efforts, which we did last year as well. This approach is science-based and, more important, built on experience.”

Last week Giant Alpecin announced their full long list ahead of the Tour. It included Nikias Arndt (Ger), Warren Barguil (Fra), Roy Curvers (Ned), John Degenkolb (Ger), Koen De Kort (Ned), Tom Dumoulin (Ned), Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger), Simon Geschke (Ger), Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe), Georg Preidler (Aut), Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned), Laurens ten Dam (Ned), Albert Timmer (Ned) and Zico Waeytens (Bel).