Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) on the 2018 Giro d'Italia podium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Defending Giro champion Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) picked up where he left off by winning the stage 1 time trial of the 2018 Giro in Jerusalem(Image credit: Getty Images)
Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin makes a last-ditch attempt on the climb to Cervinia on stage 20 to wrest the pink jersey from Chris Froome's shoulders(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tom Dumoulin at the start of stage 19(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) has said that he will announce whether or not he will ride the Tour de France in the coming days. The Giro d’Italia runner-up has already made the call on his participation but it will not be publicly confirmed until next week.
"I already know, we made the decision the day before yesterday, you're going to hear it,” Dumoulin told 1limburg.nl. "Something will become known about this in the course of next week. The Tour is a race that makes me very happy, I still have a few years, so if I do not ride the Tour this year, I'll ride it later."
Dumoulin chose to skip the Tour de France after his overall victory at last year’s Giro d’Italia, and subsequently the Vuelta a Espana as he focused on the time trial at the World Championships. He has only twice ridden two Grand Tours in a season with 2016 the only time he has done the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France back to back.
In 2016, Dumoulin was not targeting the general classification in either Grand Tour with the Olympic Games time trial in mind. He won three stages between the two races, and spent time in the Giro's maglia rosa, but abandoned both due to saddle sore at the Giro and a broken collarbone at the Tour. It’s not yet clear if Dumoulin will target the GC or stages at the Tour if he does choose to ride. The Dutchman finished second to Chris Froome (Team Sky) by 46 seconds at last month’s Giro d’Italia.
Dumoulin was speaking to L1 at the Hammer Series in Limburg after abandoning the opening Climb event after just two laps. The efforts of the Giro d’Italia were still in the legs of the Limburg local, though his team finished seventh with Bahrain-Merida taking victory after a dominant performance.
“It was bad weather and it went full gas from the beginning, causing my legs to explode immediately," said Dumoulin. “Last year it went well, but this year it was not."
