Tom Dumoulin has fully recovered from the knee injury that scuppered his 2019 season, according to his Jumbo-Visma team, who hope the Dutch rider will bring them more Grand Tour success in 2020.

His new sports director Merijn Zeeman told De Limburger that Dumoulin is now able to train intensively, and Jumbo-Visma hope the greater depth Dumoulin will bring to their squad will help them follow up Primož Roglič’s Vuelta a España win in 2019. “His trainer Mathieu Heijboer and I, as a coach, work very intensively with him and we no longer see any limitations,” said Zeeman.

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With other riders currently enjoying an off-season break, the professional peloton will all have work to do to return to their top form ahead of 2020, which they hope Dumoulin will also be able to achieve, and say they will know for sure what their rider is capable of come January.

“It is now the beginning of December and no rider is yet where he needs to be,” added Zeeman. “We will know more in January. But he is fully recovered: we now work with him at the same intensity as the others. In any case, I am very optimistic.”

Dumoulin abandoned the 2019 Giro d’Italia following a crash before returning to racing at the Critérium du Dauphiné and climbing off with only one day to go.

That was just the start of the Dutchman’s problems, who then failed to recover in time for the Tour de France or the Vuelta a España, having needed extra surgery to remove gravel from his knee that hadn’t been spotted during previous medical examinations.

After the frustration of a missed season during his prime years, the 29-year-old left Sunweb mid-season to sign for Jumbo-Visma.

He recently returned to racing, albeit tentatively so, as he took part in a mountain bike beach race.

On Sunday (December 1) he lined up at the start of MTB Beach Race in Scheveningen in the Netherlands, a 54.9km race along the North Sea coast.