It wasn`t supposed to be like this. Jai Hindley`s Giro dŽItalia debut was meant to be devoted entirely to riding in the service of Tom Dumoulin, but the Dutchman`s crash in Frascati and untimely abandon has forced a radical redrawing of Team Sunweb`s race. The Giro squad was selected with the objective of marshalling Dumoulin through the flat opening phase and then shepherding him through the high mountains as he went in search of a second overall victory in the corsa rosa. Now, rather than racing cautiously to protect and serve one of the outright favourites, Hindley and his teammates have been forced to redraw their plans. `It was a bit devastating for the team to lose Tom, and so early as well, so we`ve had to shift the focus a bit,` Hindley told Cyclingnews in Ravenna. `It`s opened up a lot of opportunities for us because Tom isn`t here, but obviously it was a shame to lose him.`ADVERTISEMENT After Dumoulin`s crash but before he had withdrawn from the race, Sunweb had briefed their riders on a change in tack. Dumoulin lost more than four minutes after crashing in the finale at Frascati on stage 4, and while his GC hopes lay in tatters, he remained determined to start the following day`s stage despite his knee injury. `We already had a meeting with the riders on the evening Tom`s crash happened, where we talked about searching for new goals,` directeur sportif Marc Reef explained. `Though it wasn`t that Tom was out of the GC completely, because we still wanted to see how the knee was and then maybe look for our chances again.` In the event, Dumoulin could only make it through 700 metres of the neutralised zone on stage 5 before calling time on his Giro. Sunweb responded by sending Louis Vervaeke up the road on that rain-soaked stage. A day later, Sam Oomen was part of the day-long escape that finished seven minutes up on the gruppo in San Giovanni Rotondo. Dumoulin
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
|
