Dumoulin returns to competition at Tour de Suisse

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Giro d'Italia winner Tom Dumoulin will return to WorldTour action at the Tour de Suisse, which gets underway on Saturday. The Dutchman will be joined in a strong Sunweb line-up by Michael Matthews, who is fine-tuning his preparation for the Tour de France.

Dumoulin was an impressive winner of last month's Giro, retaking the maglia rosa in the concluding time trial in Milan following an assured display in the race's tough final week in the high mountains.

Speaking in Piazza Duomo on the afternoon he won the Giro, Dumoulin had no firm plans for his race programme, though he had already ruled out the prospect of riding the Tour de France even before the Giro began. After lining out at the non-competitive Hammer Series event in his native Limburg last weekend, Dumoulin will now tackle the Tour de Suisse, albeit without any concrete ambitions for the general classification, at least at the outset.

"We have Tom racing in his first WorldTour race after his Giro d'Italia victory. With him we will take a day-by-day approach to see how the legs are after an intense period of racing," Sunweb coach Marc Reef said. "Our first focus will be the prologue and from there we will make a plan for the remainder of the race."

Dumoulin last participated in the Tour de Suisse in 2015, winning both time trials and placing third overall in a race won by Simon Spilak.

Michael Matthews last raced at the Rund um den Finanzplatz in Frankfurt on May 1. The Australian has been training at altitude in recent weeks as he builds towards the Tour de France, where he will aim to match his stage win of a year ago and challenge Peter Sagan for the green jersey.

"Michael lines up at the Tour de Suisse after spending some time at altitude. For the fast finishes where there is a chance of a bunch sprint, we aim to work with our sprint train and go for a result," said Marc Reef.

Sunweb team for Tour de Suisse: Tom Dumoulin, Michael Matthews, Nikias Arndt, Roy Curvers, Mike Teunissen, Ramon Sinkeldam, Albert Timmer and Georg Preidler.