Tom Dumoulin was absent from the Tour de France presentation on Tuesday, but many in Paris felt he should set the Grand Boucle as his major goal for 2018, including race director Christian Prudhomme. Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) is currently enjoying an end-of-season holiday in the US after winning the Giro d´Italia in May and then taking the world time trial title in Bergen, where he beat Chris Froome by more than a minute. He has so far pushed back on confirming he will target the Tour de France in 2018, insisting that the routes of the Tour de France and Giro d´Italia will be the decisive factor when he sits down with Team Sunweb management post-vacation to plan his 2018 season. `If I go to the Tour I want to fight for victory, but there`s a lot of guys and you have to beat them all to win. It`s not a clash of the titans between me and Froome,` Dumoulin told Cyclingnews recently in a special podcast interview.ADVERTISEMENT `I´d rather win the Giro than be on the podium of the Tour. So it pretty much depends on the routes.` Prudhomme seems keen to have Dumoulin at the 2018 Tour de France. Like many, he sees him as a real rival to Froome and called on him to ride the Tour. The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf asked, `Will this be Tom`s Tour?`, while L´Equipe newspaper specifically compared Froome´s and Dumoulin´s chances. `Come to the Tour, Tom. You´ve got a great chance to compete against a rider with the same qualities as you: Chris Froome,` Prudhomme said an interview with Dutch national television channel NOS. Waiting for Giro d`Italia route - NOS Sport (@NOSsport) October 17, 2017
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
|
