Fifty-six seconds, three mountain stages and more than 11,000 metres of climbing, but no matter how Tom Dumoulin and Sunweb crunch the numbers, the path to victory on this Giro d`Italia is beginning to have the feel of an unsolvable equation. Maglia rosa Simon Yates has not shown the merest sign of weakness to this point, and the terrain in the final days is decidedly in his favour. Tuesday`s time trial to Rovereto offered Dumoulin his biggest opportunity to overturn Yates` advantage, but the Dutchman could only claw back 1:15 of his deficit over the 34.2 kilometres. His disappointment at the finish was palpable, though Sunweb directeur sportif Marc Reef maintained in Riva del Garda on Wednesday that Dumoulin had exceeded his own downbeat prognostications. `When we did the recon with Tom, we noticed already it was a course where we would not take big time on Yates, especially if Yates produced the same power that he had done in the stages before,` Reef told Cyclingnews. `We were expecting to gain between 40 seconds and a minute in the best possible scenario, but Tom took a bit more than we expected, so that`s only good.`ADVERTISEMENT After Wednesday`s rain-soaked finale in Iseo, Dumoulin was a guest on RAI`s post-stage analysis show Processo alla Tappa, and though he wore a broad smile as he fielded questions in the mobile broadcast unit, he was sober when asked to assess his chances of overhauling Yates. `It`s possible to gain time on any day, but in this moment, he is too strong,` Dumoulin admitted. `In the days to come, I`ll have to have legs twice as good as him if I`m going to win.` Of the forthcoming triptych in the Piedmontese Alps, stage 18 to Prato Nevoso seems the best suited to Dumoulin`s strengths. The haul to the finish (13.9km at 6.9%) is the only major climb on the menu, and the terrain is markedly similar to last year`s stage to Oropa, where Dumoulin dropped no less a figure than Nairo Quintana to claim stage victory. `It looks like a good s ...
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