CyclingPub Interview: Tom Dumoulin discusses past and future

Jan 12 2017 10:49 pm CET

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TOM DUMOULIN

TEAM SUNWEB



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Photos by Mary Cárdenas / CyclingPub.com

"To be able to put on the Pink Jersey in front of your home crowd, a lot of emotions came together there"

"The team dedicated a lot of time and money to create the best possible roster with the means available."

"If you're just not good enough you can have as much of a winner's mentality as you like but it won't make a difference."

"When Sam Oomen won the Tour de l'Ain last year, I did do a little victory dance in the room."

Photo of Tom Dumoulin by Mary Cárdenas / CyclingPub.com

Tom Dumoulin, winner of three grand tour stages in 2016 and Silver medalist of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Time Trial, took a moment of his time to talk to CyclingPub.com.We meet the rather tall Dutchman in the lobby of a hotel in Calpe, Spain, where his team Sunweb is preparing for the upcoming season. He looks relaxed and clearly has everything under control as he prepares for a year in which the classification of the Giro d'Italia will be his main goal.During our interview, we discuss the past season, the plans for 2017, Dumoulin's role in the peloton and much more.Tom Dumoulin: I'm doing well. We're well on schedule. We had a test day yesterday and that went well. I will have a test on the track in Valencia tomorrow. The rest of the team will be on the bike for six hours and I can only do four or five. So I trained a bit longer today.Very happy, very proud. I'm actually really satisfied with the season. Just Rio, everybody always starts asking about that... Of course I would have preferred to have Gold there but it just wasn't possible. And I wasn't disappointed that long. Right after the finish I was disappointed of course. Especially after the time trial in the Tour de France where I had a big gap, you hope to go for Gold there. But the circumstances complicated that.I'm still looking for a good spot. It's lying somewhere in my study now. It'll get a spot at some point.The Tour stage to Andorra. That was really cool. And the (Giro d'Italia) time trial in Apeldoorn was also beautiful, to be able to put on the Pink Jersey in front of your home crowd, a lot of emotions came together there.It's like cycling through a stadium. I am very focused so I kind of block it out but you do notice and it's really cool to experience.Every year has its own challenges. I wouldn't say that it will be easier than last year, maybe even harder. Last year I was really focused on time trials, on one goal. That comes with a lot of doubts and uncertainty. But this year I will try to ride for the classification which is something I haven't done before either. That's exciting as well. It won't be easier this year, no.Many people ask me about my classification but I just want to try really hard. That may sound silly but I won't be happy with a 22nd place, even if I did try my best. I just can't say 'fifth or sixth or third'. We'll see. I will finish it and then see whether I'm happy with the result.Absolutely.We don't have the budget of Sky or BMC. We can't just buy a rider for half a million and tell him to just ride in front. We don't have the budget for that. As long as that doesn't change, we will never be as strong as those other teams. But the team dedicated a lot of time and money to create the best possible roster with the means available. We did manage to attract Wilco Kelderman, which is great and makes me feel more supported.I will definitely have to take advantage of the time trials. And there are a few stages that will be difficult but not that bad. An uphill finish of 20 kilometers will be a matter of me limiting the damage. But other stages, such as the one that goes through Tuscany I believe, will be an opportunity for me to strike.Yes and no. Until now the preparation has been pretty similar. We even made more time trial kilometers than last year. But from the moment the races come closer, more attention will go to climbing rather than time trials. I will also go to South Africa for a altitude training camp in February for two weeks. That will be new to me. I have done altitude training before but not that early in the year.It's not so much that you see big changes to the blood levels. They always say that, that your erythropoietin levels rise. I'm sure they do, but the big difference is simply the amount of climbing kilometers you can do. A very specific training with a lot of meters at high altitude. That's not something I do when I'm in Limburg. I do climbs there as well but not climbs of an hour. I can't deliver 320 watts for an hour when I'm at home, and in South Africa I can.We will try to make improvements to my positioning on the bike. And if we don't manage that, at least we'll have a good confirmation that the positioning is good. We do this test every year and we haven't actually changed anything for four years. And maybe it'll be the same this year. But it's just one day in the preseason and I like to spend that time in order to feel certain about my positioning for the rest of the year.The option is there but probably not. It's very early to say but it's not planned. The idea is to do the Eneco Tour before going to Canada and then the World Championships.I mostly focus on myself so I don't feel pressure just because Steven is doing so well. But still, somewhere deep down it does seem to cause something. You do see that in the last few years, with the same riders as before, we're suddenly getting the results. I don't really know what caused that. It's definitely notable.I don't know if we missed that in the past. If you're just not good enough you can have as much of a winner's mentality as you like but it won't make a difference. A classification after three weeks is very fair. It's not like you would have fought for the top spots if you did have a winner's mentality. I don't think it's that easy. I reckon it's just a coincidence.Not really. Of course I want to do well and if I do well, someone else suffers. If I finish first, someone else can't finish first. In that sense there's always some rivalry. But not particularly, no. Wout Poels, Mollema and Kruijswijk and I were at the Olympic Games together and we had a great time there.I wouldn't wait for Bauke either. I will also attack him when I see he's having a bad moment. If we're in a battle for fifth place, I'll be on my way.No. When I feel the need I do speak my mind, and sometimes a bit too much. I have to find a balance in that sense. But I definitely don't want to be some sort of 'patron'. I'm far away from that role now but if I could have it at some point, I wouldn't want it.I rode the Eneco Tour last year and it was very well organized there. I think we didn't see any motorbikes in the peloton during the entire week. So it's possible. They gave a lot of thought to the signalling for motorbikes and it was great. I think that will be the future and other races should follow the example. Apart from that, having less riders in the peloton would also improve the safety although that comes with its own pro's and cons.It would likely lead to more exciting races as it's harder to control. It's also better for safety. But it does goes at the expense of a lot of jobs.Not really one rider in particular. I do really enjoy it when the younger riders do well. Like when Sam Oomen won the Tour de l'Ain last year, I did do a little victory dance in the room.Positive. We have a nice new generation with guys like Sam and the guys that currently carry Dutch cycling in the sense of results can also keep it up for another few years, like Bauke, Steven, Wilco and me. So I'm optimistic about the future.