Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) continued his comeback with a record-equalling fourth Dutch time trial title as he swept the competition away on Wednesday.
The former Giro d’Italia champion returned to action after a five-month career hiatus at the recent Tour de Suisse, and the Dutch Championships was a crucial step on his path to the Olympic Games later this summer.
Although far from his stage racing best in Switzerland, Dumoulin issued a reminder of his prowess against the clock on Wednesday, as well as proving to the national selectors that he’s worthy of a ticket to Tokyo.
Dumoulin, who started last in the absence of reigning champion Jos van Emden and 2018 winner Dylan van Baarle, clocked 36:06 on the 29.6km course in Emmen.
Sebastian Langeveld (EF Education-Nippo) was 27 seconds in arrears as he collected the third silver medal of his career, while Dumoulin’s Jumbo-Visma teammate Koen Bouwman rounded out the podium at 1:24.
Cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Dutch time trial championship returned in Essen for two laps of a 14.8km circuit. Unusually for the Netherlands, it wasn’t flat, with an early 400-metre climb of the ‘Wall of Emmen’ – a 7.4 per cent incline up a rubbish heap, similar to the VAM berg that’ll be used for Sunday’s road race. From there, it was big ring territory, but there were still no fewer than ten 90-degree bends to negotiate.
Van Emden was unable to start following his crash at the recent Giro d’Italia, while Van Baarle is busy preparing for the Tour de France.
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After Bouwman had set a strong early benchmark, it became a battle between Dumoulin and Langeveld later on. Dumoulin was three seconds to the good after one lap, before opening the taps and taking his advantage out to nearly half a minute by the finish.
Bouwman rounded out the podium while Ide Schelling continued his strong season ahead of his Tour de France debut just a few seconds back. Langeveld’s teammate Julius van den Berg made it a WorldTour top five, followed in sixth by Elmar Reinders, who rides for Continental outfit Riwal. Just behind him was an amateur rider in 27-year-old Marien Bogerd, one of only eight riders to finish within two minutes of Dumoulin.
Patrick is an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish) and a decade’s experience in digital sports media, largely within the world of cycling. He re-joined Cyclingnews as Deputy Editor in February 2026, having previously spent eight years on staff between 2015 and 2023. In between, he was Deputy Editor at GCN and spent 18 months working across the sports portfolio at Future before returning to the cycling press pack. Patrick works across Cyclingnews’ wide-ranging output, assisting the Editor in global content strategy, with a particular focus on shaping CN's news operation.
